


A Challenging Road Ahead

by Jade444



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Abuse, Attempted Rape, Bone Breaking, Boss doesn't seem like such a dicc now, Christmas Presents, Christmas chapter, Clothes Shopping, Collar, Everyone has to be tortured, F/F, Fell paps is a Dicc, Forced Starvation, Frisk - Neutral run, Jealous Red, Jealousy, M/M, Mentioned Abuse, Minor Character Death, Multi, Nightmares, Oh look Frisk, Oh look he is sleepy, Pancakes, Panic Attacks, Planned But failed Murder, Protective Red, Red gets a new collar, Red kind of seems like a yandere now, Red wears collars, Stockholm Syndrome, The Cherryberry can be considered Platonic, Well he might have a valid excuse, but it's doubtful, cursing, everyone is insane, id say sorry but im not, implied stockholm syndrome, mentioned sexual abuse, self doubt, thats adorable, why are you here
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-18
Updated: 2018-05-22
Packaged: 2019-02-04 01:28:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 13
Words: 26,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12760332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jade444/pseuds/Jade444
Summary: Red finds himself broken in Underswap. He has convinced himself that despite the abuse his brother has delivered to him, he still loves him. The brothers in Underswap aren't so convinced, and try to ease his mind and his urgency to get back home.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to my crappy writing.  
> This chapter was shorter than I'd like, but it seemed like the best place to end the chapter.

Red blinked his eyes open drowsily, his sight blurring as he woke up. After a moment he immediately jolted backwards in his chair, red eyelights widening in fear. His brother’s towering figure stood in front of him, hands on his hips. “I thought I told you not to fall asleep!” Papyrus- no, Boss- screeched, slamming a fist down on the table with enough force to rattle the wooden station and Red’s bones. Red ducked his head, bringing his hands up to cover his skull.

“B-Boss! I didn’t mean to, P-Please don’t hurt me…” Red plea for mercy trailed off as he watched Boss summon a sharp bone, and pointed it at him, right between the eyesockets. “I’ll show you for the millionth time what happens when you disobey,” Boss turned the weapon over in his hands, “I’d think you’d have learned by now.” He growled, and brought the pointed end down, digging into Red’s eyesocket and leaving a claw-like scar there.

Red cried out in pain, curling in on himself. “P-Please, Boss, i-it was all my f-fault, I-I can make it up t-to you..” He mumbled quickly, whimpering again. His second plea ignored, he felt himself being picked up with magic, and flung out of his station. He ended up sprawled in the snow. Shivering and trembling out of fear and cold, he tried to curl up again, his goal instinctively to protect his ribs.  
Unfortunately luck was not on his side. Before he could finish the movement, the pointed toe of Boss’ -fabulous- heels drove itself into his sternum, causing a sickening crack. Before long, cracking noises started filling the air along with Red’s screams. Once Boss finally seemed done, Red was nearly unconscious. _Never thought he’d actually kill me…_ he thought to himself, his mind feeling fuzzy and he felt like he was floating or something. He could feel his 1 HP draining away. The tall hulking figure took a step back, then turned and walked away.

Red convinced himself that Boss would never actually do it. He was just doing it to keep him tough, and putting on the act to seem strong. Red loved his brother, and was convinced, despite all the beatings and punishments, that his brother loved him too. The taller skeleton just had a lot of LV, and easily lost his temper. It wasn’t that he hated Red, even though he constantly reminded him that he did. _No, he does hate me… he wants to get rid of me, what am I even thinking?_ A sharp thought speared through his mind, making him slowly regain consciousness.

0.5 HP.

He knew he was rather low on HP, but he couldn’t move well enough to try and get help, or even heal himself. His thoughts were warring with themselves, one side filled with hope, one with logic and cold hard facts. _My Boss hates me, I don’t know why he keeps me around. **Because he loves me, of course. He’s probably going to come back and help you, heal you. You just need to believe in him**. Why do you think he calls me Red? He said ‘I don’t deserve a true name, I’m just a pet that needs to be trained.’_

Red took a deep, painful breath as he tried to calm his thoughts, his mind going blank. It would be so easy to just fall asleep, and let his fate take him where it wanted. Though, something deep in his soul screamed at him to get up, to run, to keep on living. _But I’m too weak. Someone will just see me and finish the job. They hate me. Everyone hates me. I see it in their eyes, they’d rather me dead, they tell me all the time. Boss does too, he just keeps me alive because he wants a pet…_  
He tried his best to push himself to at least sit up, his eyelights dimmed as he let out a small pained whimper. No one was coming to save him, there was no Boss coming to heal him. His bones were frail from lack of nutrition, so his injuries affected him even more. He had refused to eat for several days.

0.4 HP.

Red heard the shuffle of footsteps, seeing… what? A human? Oh, well, it didn’t really matter. Nothing was able to help him anyways. Humans no longer had magic, to his knowledge. It had died out during the war that ended up driving them underground. At least if the human was hostile, he’d die quicker.

He shifted slightly, the pain in his ribs making it almost impossible to keep quiet. There was a small grating sound, and Red felt dust drift down from his ribs.

0.3 HP.

His mind was going fuzzy again, his thoughts dissolving into incoherence. The human child walked up to him, speaking something that Red couldn’t piece together as sense. They were talking to a… flower? Red was sure he was hallucinating now. His HP stopped at 0.1, not seeming to go down any further. He heard a fizzing sound that strangely sounded like a portal, which convinced him he was hallucinating. He blacked out as soon as he felt himself being picked up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Boss and those fabulous heels


	2. New Boss?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Red is found by someone who looks like his brother, his Boss.
> 
> ////  
> Frisk decides to travel with a genocidal ghost

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here you go, you get two chapters in one day!

Red woke up, after what felt like hours. All he knew was that his bones were stiff as hell, and he was curled up in a tight ball. His head still felt fuzzy, and he felt marrow leaking from the fractures and breaks in his ribs and arms and clavicle. The pain was almost blinding, deafening, anything that took away his senses. His soul was pounding heavily and he slowly felt his mind calm down. Now that he was thinking, though, he was starting to panic.

  
_Shit, the Boss is going to kill me, I need to get home. He’s going to come any minute, I need to GET UP_! His breathing was starting to get shallow and he tried to calm himself down, sitting up. He was trembling. As he looked around himself, he saw he was in the Snowdin forest. He couldn’t be that far from his station, he told himself. But something seemed… strange. The air didn’t smell of dust like normal, and he noticed a lack of blood on the ground. If he’d been there for very long, he’d have covered more of the ground with his blood.

  
When he tried to get up, he found that he couldn’t. His legs betrayed him. He had no choice but to stay where he was, and that fact made him all the more freaked out.

  
****

Stretch sighed as he teleported to his station, brushing his hands over the wood carefully. He was running quickly out of hope. Every goddamn reset put him one step closer to just dusting himself and getting it over with. He just wished something new would happen, at least occasionally- wait. He heard something, coming from the forest. It sounded like a portal. But what could be coming through? He had spoke to Undyne before and they had discussed what could possibly be in other dimensions, and not all of the possibilities were very pretty.  
He took a deep breath, heading into the forest. He went toward where he had heard the sound, his eyelights brushing over every plant, every tree, every dead bush in order to see what could possibly await him. He didn’t want to call his brother just yet, in case this would be dangerous. His worry lessened as he heard a small whimper, and approached a very small figure in the snow. From what he could have guessed the small skeleton on the ground looked almost childishly small, though he could tell he was much older than he looked.

  
He looked nearly identical to Stretch’s brother, with a few exceptions. He had pointed teeth -one gold- and wore a fluffy but ragged winter jacket. Under the jacket Stretch spotted he was wearing a grayish black t-shirt that was stained with blood. As Stretch stepped closer, he saw the small skeleton start to tremble intensely.

POV switch

  
Red felt his bones start to tremble a lot more as the tall skeleton approached. _Oh god, it’s Boss, he’s going to finish the job, I don’t want to die!_ Red quickly opened his mouth to speak, but no sound came out. _WHAT_?! His own thoughts blazed through his head with the force of an earthquake. _Why can’t I speak? What’s going on? Did Boss do something to my soul…? **Wait, the human! They probably did something to me, Boss would never do such a thing!** I can’t speak, and if I don’t respond, he’s probably going to kill me…_ Red started to panic, his breathing picking up and his soul beating furiously.

  
The world around him started blurring, and he felt like he was going to pass out again.

  
Then the voice he learned to fear, it spoke, sounding rougher and lower than normal. “Woah, buddy, I’m not gonna hurt ya. Calm down.” The voice said, and the tall figure near him reached out a hand. Red promptly flinched away, fearing the voice was lying and that he’d be dust in no time at all. “Can you speak, bud?” He was asked, the voice unwavering. Red whimpered and shook his head. He only vaguely remembered the sign language he had learned from Gaster, but he thought he could put it to use now. ‘No, I don’t know why I can’t speak.’ He signed, hands trembling almost to much to have sense made of their actions. To his relief the figure understood, nodding his head gently.

  
Red suddenly gasped, as a sharp pain lanced through his soul, adding to the urgency. The… not-Boss looked extremely worried. Why would he be worried? _This is so strange… he’s probably just going to kill me later…_ he tried to sit up, at least shift his position so his ribs weren’t grating together. ‘Who are you?’ he signed, looking at him suspiciously. “I’m Papyrus.” He responded, tilting his head. “what’s your name?” He asked Red, curiosity in his eyelights.

  
Red started to sign ‘Sans’, but then automatically corrected himself, ‘S-Red.’ He finished. Papyrus -this was so weird- nodded and stayed a comfortable distance away. Red knew Papyrus was likely getting his clothes wet by kneeling in the snow, and he was really confused why he would. If he was anything like his brother, then he definitely didn’t have specific feeling for anyone. This could be an alternate universe… he thought, having heard something about that at some other point.

  
Which meant this Papyrus had a brother, too. Another person to kill Red, sigh… “Can I pick you up?” Papyrus asked, his tone soothing. ‘Why?’ Red asked, narrowing his eyes. He didn’t understand _why_ he would care. “I can’t just leave you out here, can I? I’ll take you somewhere safe.” He replied, smiling. ‘You could.’ Red signed slowly, just looking at Papyrus. “What?” came the incredulous response, Papyrus’ eyesockets going wide.

  
‘You could leave me here…’

  
“I would never do that.” Papyrus said, sounding determined. Red just shook his head in disbelief, though that was a bad idea, which made him dizzy. And it reminded him of the scar in his eyesocket which had started hurting like hell since he woke up. He winced, curling in on himself. “Can I please pick you up?” Papyrus tried again. Red hesitated a moment before nodding, being picked up a moment later. To his embarrassment he was being carried like one would hold a baby, but in this position he didn’t exactly have the capability to argue. Not that he’d want to argue. **_You have to get back to the Boss, he’s going to miss you. And you know what happens when he’s mad._** _I don’t want to go back, if I go back he will kill me. But… I would deserve it. I really should go back…. Hopefully if I leave this new Papyrus won’t be too mad at me._ Red started wondering, though.

  
What if his brother had sent him here? What if he had given him away to this place, and he was just going to be someone else’s pet? **_I_** ** _hope not, need to get_ _back to him, need to get him_ _to_ _explain_. _**M** aybe he’ll know where you are and how this happened_**. _It’s not like I could get away on my own terms…_  
Red sighed and tried his best to relax. It obviously worked, as the relaxation plus the gentle motion of walking had him asleep within minutes.

  
*******

  
Frisk walked calmly through Snowdin, feeling happy about her success in transporting the small skeleton from earlier to somewhere… happier. She looked around, and then at Flowey. The flower seemed to be asleep, his eyes closed. After opening the portal the flower had been very tired. So she just walked in silence, monsters watching her as she passed. The Papyrus of this world seemed to be missing, or was probably just at home.

  
She headed quickly into Waterfall, looking around happily. *You hear a passing conversation.

  
*I m w a t c h i n g y o u

  
Frisk quickly jolted at the message, her eyes going wide. She saw something out of the corner of her eye, and turned around. And she saw a… another human? They had red eyes, brown hair, and a green and yellow striped sweater. “Hello!” Frisk said, undeterred. The other human just seemed curious. Though, Frisk was pretty sure that they were a ghost; they were slightly transparent.

  
“I’m Chara,” the stranger said, their voice soft. “What’s your name?”  
Frisk smiled brightly. “I’m Frisk!” she said in return to her question. Flowey seemed to be waking up, but not too quickly. “Can I come with you?” Chara asked. Frisk nodded eagerly. “Always happy to have company!” she said, and then turned to start walking again.  
This was going to be an interesting walk. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Frisk no, why u do this?


	3. Regret

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frisk and Chara have an encounter with the Hero Undyne.  
> \--  
> Red meets a Blueberry and stuff happens.  
> \--  
> Boss point of view.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter warnings for violence, cursing, etc.  
> Boss is kind of a yandere.

Frisk kept occasionally glancing at Chara, smiling softly. She fell into step next to the strange human. “How are you?” Frisk asked, always one to start a conversation. Chara shrugged, keeping her red eyed gaze ahead. “Fine, though I’d rather prefer to not be a ghost.” She said, crossing her arms. “Oh! Maybe Alphys could help with that! Maybe in this universe she’s at least nice enough to do that.”

  
Flowey seemed to be waking up finally, blinking his eyes open. He peered at Chara, or at least in her direction. “Who are you talking to, Frisk?” He asked. Frisk looked at him, confused. “Um…” she looked at Chara, who seemed to be giving her a strange look. “I found a human, a ghost. She seems to want to come with us.” Frisk replied, thinking it best to not tell him, for whatever reason. “Did she tell you her name…?” Flowey pressed, leaning a little closer.

  
Their conversation was then interrupted by a spear flying past them. Frisk immediately broke into a run, lifting a hand to help hold Flowey in place. Frisk saw a turn and skidded, running down the corner. She ducked into a small hole big enough for them to curl up in. Undyne stomped past, screeching in frustration. The heroic villain took several minutes to check around, then left, probably back home. Frisk let out a breath and slowly crawled out of the crevice. She panicked a little when she didn’t see Chara, but was relieved when the ghost faded into sight beside her.

  
Frisk smiled, and without thinking, hugged Chara tightly. After a moment she actually realized what she was doing, and jumped away. Even Chara looked surprised, holding her hands in the air protectively. “Sorry! Wait, how….?” Frisk looked at Chara, not quite believing that had happened. Chara seemed to calm down, and took a deep breath. “It must be your determination. It’s also what lets you see me.” Chara said, her voice very calm.

  
Frisk blinked and peered at Chara, extending a hand. Chara met her hand, their fingers gently touching before Frisk pulled her hand back again sharply. “This is really weird…” Frisk mumbled and looked around, suddenly noticing the lack of talking flower on her shoulder. “FLOWEY!” she shrieked loudly and began looking around for the flower. She heard a small reply and rushed to him, turning another corner. “Sorry, Frisk, I heard something and I had to check it out.” The human could tell Flowey was lying, but she walked over and scooped him up anyways, placing him on her shoulder.

  
As Flowey curled his roots around her arm, she headed off again, seeing Chara. She continued to head off toward the Hotlands.

  
*****

  
Red woke up, having been curled up in a ball. His ribs still hurt, but when he moved he felt a sticky substance on them. He was… on a couch?! No, he had to get off or the Boss would be mad. He slid to the floor, hoping the tall skeleton hadn’t seen him. He tried desperately not to panic as he remembered the events of the… how much time had passed? A day, a few hours? It felt like years, but Red wasn’t stupid enough to believe that long had passed.

  
He looked around, surprised to see the house around him looked strange. Maybe Boss had just cleaned. Papyrus had probably realized he didn’t want the trouble of taking care of Red, and sent him back while he’d been asleep. Now he just had to worry about Boss, probably. But… the place did really look different. The couch was more saggy, and there was a faint jingling sound when he touched it. He put a hand between the cushions and pulled out several G. He immediately dropped it.

  
The Boss always got mad when Red had any money, and immediately took it from him. Red didn’t want to get in trouble, he didn’t exactly like being hurt. Well, sometimes he did, but that was um… different.

  
He shook his head and then froze as he heard footsteps, unable to stop a whimper from escaping his mouth. He covered over his head with his hands and started trembling, not wanting to get in trouble. He didn’t even bother signing for mercy. “Woah, kid, I’m not gonna hurt you.” The voice from before came again. Papyrus…? Red tilted his head up and fearfully looked up at him. The tall, friendly seeming skeleton crouched down beside him, keeping a comfortable distance away. Red sat up a little and looked at him, still trembling but trying to calm down. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself.

  
“Do you want something to eat?”

  
Red thought for a moment, and looked down at the ground. ‘The Boss will be mad if I eat.’ He finally signed to him. Papyrus looked a little mad for a moment, even though part of Red knew it wasn’t at him. Nonetheless, Red huddled in on himself and his trembling increased. “You don’t have to worry about your Boss any more, he’s not in this universe.” Papyrus said softly, frowning. _**No Boss? No, that’s not possible, you have to tell him you have to get back to Boss, you have to**! No, I don’t want to have to get back to Boss, I have to stay away… I’m really hungry. If I don’t eat I’ll be dust… though maybe that would be better than whatever this Papyrus would do to me… _

  
Red ultimately decided he would allow himself to eat at least a little bit. “I’m not the best cook ever, but I guess I could—” He stopped speaking and looked toward the door, a small bundle of energy entering the house. Red curled up in a ball, his head tucked between his knees. He whimpered as the newcomer came around the couch and looked at him, pausing in his energetic tracks. “Papy—” He had started, only to be shushed by Papyrus.

  
“Shh, bro, he’s scared. You gotta be quiet and calm.” Papyrus ’ voice soothed. Red stayed in the same position, his breathing had picked up in panic. He tried so hard to stop himself, but he couldn’t. _There’s two of them, they’re gonna hurt me, gonna break me, gonna kill me! I have to get away, but I can’t, they’re going to stop me if I do, I can’t escape… **I’m going to be okay, going to be fine. Boss will come to help, he’ll come save me and take me home** … _

  
He suddenly felt gentle arms picking him up and placing him back on the couch, which made him confused enough to momentarily forget his fear. _Why would they purposefully put me on the couch? Probably to have a reason to hurt me…_ He felt a blanket being draped over him, which made him even more confused. Though with it, he felt a lot better, and sat up, wrapping the blanket around himself tighter. He still felt his tears dripping down his cheeks, and hid his face with the blanket, wiping away the wetness.

  
Red looked at the two expectant faces from between the edges of the blankets, one seeming sad and one just calm. “We’re not going to hurt you, we promise.” Papyrus said, and looked over at the other skeleton. “This is my brother, Sans.” He said afterward. Sans… Red hadn’t been called that for nearly a year. Sans seemed to fidget slightly, as if he wanted to do something but he couldn’t.

  
Red fully calmed after several minutes, but them staring at him was making him freak out again. He huddled deeper into his blanket again and whimpered. Sans silently turned and walked into a different room, the room Red guessed was the kitchen; the sounds of pots and pans clanging together came moments later.  
He was left to look at Papyrus, who started to get up, causing the spooked skele to wince. Papyrus just got up the rest of the way and sat next to Red on the couch. “I hope you don’t mind, I put medicine on your injuries to help heal them and make them hurt less.” He said, putting on a small smile. ‘Why are you even helping me?’

  
That made Papyrus frown, and the tall skeleton put his hands in his pockets. Red momentarily wondered what he could possibly have in his pockets, but switched his attention back to Papyrus. “Because technically you are my brother, even if you are from a different universe. And I’d do anything for my bro.” He finally replied after what felt like an hour. Red was left to think about that for a few more minutes.

  
‘I need to get back… back to my Boss.’ Red signed slowly, hoping Papyrus wouldn’t be mad. He hadn’t shown any anger toward him, though, so that made Red feel a small bit better. “Who’s your boss? Is he… he looks like me, right? That’s why you were so scared before?” Papyrus asked, rather surprising Red. He hadn’t expected him to ask something like that, at all. ‘Yes, but he has sharper features. Sharp teeth.’ Red replied. **_Just answer his questions and he won’t be mad. And he might let me get back to the Boss._**

  
“Okay. Is he your…?” Papyrus trailed off, shifting uncomfortably. ‘Yes, he is my brother. He doesn’t like me calling him that go. I should get back to him.’ He signed back, and then winced as Papyrus seemed to bristle. “I don’t think you should go back. If you do he’ll just hurt you again.” The tall skele took a deep breath to calm himself. ‘But… Boss will be mad at me if I don’t go back. And he… he….’ Red’s breathing picked up for a moment, but he calmed down. ‘He just wants to take care of me.’ He finished, frowning deeply.

  
“I know it’s not my place to say this, but if he cared about you why would he hurt you that badly?” Papyrus asked. Red looked down and shrugged. ‘I don’t know…’ he signed, and let his hands drop to his lap. Papyrus simply sighed and looked over at the TV, switching it on. Now just to wait for Sans to finish with whatever he was deciding to make.

******

  
Boss trudged through the snow, his arms crossed. His useless brother had gone missing. He _supposed_ he had been a little hard on the little shit. He knew he’d have been alive anyways, Red was always annoyingly tough, at least for the most part. He also _supposed_ it would be a shame to lose his only brother. Especially since skeleton monsters were so damn rare. Maybe Gaster was working on another little thing in his lab, but it was unlikely. Gaster had been missing for several months, though. Whenever he was mentioned, no one seemed to even know who was being talked about.

  
Boss just continued along the path, the snow crunching under his boots. The thought that his brother actually might be dead sent an uncomfortable pulse through his soul. The sudden change made him nauseous. Could skeletons even throw up? Well, he _supposed_ he had yet to find out. He really didn’t mean to hurt Red as bad as he had, but he had just been so angry that his LV took over. Whatever, he didn’t need Red. If anything, it made him have to do less work.

  
He headed down the forest path. He only went this way every other day, but with his brother missing he _supposed_ it was necessary. Looking around, he headed into the trees. He could only go so far in; even if he was very powerful, he didn’t exactly wish to be ambushed.

  
After a few hours of searching, he just headed back home. If he’d passed his brothers dust he wouldn’t have known. So much monster dust decorated the ground that he couldn’t tell.

  
Boss just entered his house, closing the door behind him gently. He would have to check with Alphys soon to see if she saw him. His soul pulsed again in that unnerving way. “Ugh, why is this…” He breathed heavily and went up to his room. If someone had taken Red he’d be forced to dust them, he would have to get his brother back sooner or later. Just had to hope no one killed Red before he could get him home.

  
That would be a shame. He also guessed his treatment of Red was rather harsh, but if he stopped now Red would get confident and then leave him. Not that he was exactly with him at the moment. But he could get him back, he would have to take extra precautions to keep Red there. If Red ran away again after he got him back, then what would be the point of trying to keep him there?  
Boss couldn’t lose his brother. His… brother.  
…  
_Boss aimed another kick at the small skeletons ribs, feeling rage burn through his soul. He wasn’t completely in control, but this was a necessary sacrifice. “You are not my brother! I am your Boss and you will respect me, you will address me accordingly!”_

  
Why had he said that? There had been no turning back after that though, because if he hesitated at that point Red would think he was weak, and would think he wouldn’t be firm. So now he had to punish Red for ever calling him ‘bro’.

  
And now he felt like he had lost Red now.

  
He had to get Red back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments give me more urgency to get the next chapter done.  
> Help me fight my laziness guys!


	4. A Date with Death

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frisk and the gang have a run-in with Fell Alphys   
> \---  
> Red eats tacos.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So many ideas for Chara and Frisk~

Frisk, Chara, and Flowey had been walking for about a day. Of course, they did have to stop several times to avoid Undyne, and sleep as well. Frisk was thinking about how her determination allowed her to touch Chara, as they walked up to the Lab. She was hoping that Alphys would be able to help them get Chara a soul, so she could regain a physical form. Maybe the scientist could engineer an artificial one.

  
The doors slid open, and they walked inside. And… Frisk immediately had to duck out of the way of a magic attack aimed at her. “Ahhh!” Flowey cried out as he almost slipped off her shoulder. Chara was nowhere to be seen as Frisk confronted the scientist that had thrown the magic attacks. “stay where you are!” Alphys growled, seeming to charge another magic attack.

  
“Alphys! We just need your Help!” Frisk shouted, and had to dodge another attack. “I will never help you, human!” she spat at Frisk, glaring through her odd glasses. Flowey charged an attack and threw it at Alphys, bringing the monster’s health down by half. Frisk dodged a few more magic attacks and let Flowey charge another one, which reduced Alphys to dust. “FLOWEY!!” Frisk shrieked, looking at the dust that now lay on the ground.

  
“Frisk, she was going to kill us. If I didn’t, we’d be as dead as your ghost friend.” Flowey rolled his eyes, tightening his hold on the humans shoulder. “umm…. Maybe we could use one of her machines to travel to a different universe? And get that Alphys to help?” Frisk suggested with a deep sigh. “I could open up another portal myself but would we really be able to get your friend through?” Flowey asked, causing Frisk to look around. Chara was spotted a few feet away, kneeling next to the dust.

  
Frisk walked over to her and frowned. “Are you okay?” the pacifist asked. “Yeah… but I think the best idea is going to another universe.” Chara gave her input as she stood up, looking at Frisk. “Yeah, I guess we should head into the true lab.” Frisk sighed and headed to the elevator.

  
*time skip*   
It was about an hour before they found the machine and figured out how to power it up. Frisk flipped a switch and the portal appeared; she headed over to it, and stepped within a foot of it. “Flowey, are you ready?” she asked, and the flower nodded. She looked at Chara, getting a similar response. Grabbing the ghosts hand, Frisk stepped through the portal. Surprisingly enough, they stepped right back into the true lab. A startled looking… Undyne? stared at them. “Underswap…” Chara muttered while Frisk stepped forward. “Hello!” Frisk said cheerfully, her eyes sparkling happily.

  
“Um… h-hello.”

  
***

  
Red waited patiently as the wonderful aromas of food cooking wafted into the room. The previous day, Papyrus and Sans couldn’t coax him into eating something. But now it was painfully obvious to him that he needed to eat. So Papyrus had gotten Sans to make something they called ‘tacos’. They didn’t sound that good to Red, but he found that he didn’t care, as long as he got food.

  
After several more minutes of waiting, Sans brought Red a plate, handing it to the undernourished skeleton. Red looked down at the food, the weird corn shells filled with meat, tomatoes, cheese, and green… stuff. He hesitantly picked one up, looking up at the two skeletons now sitting in front of him to make sure he was okay to eat them, that they wouldn’t be mad. Only after getting two solemn nods did he take a bite.

  
The hard shell uncomfortably poked at his teeth when he bit into it, but otherwise it tasted fine. Actually, Red thought they tasted so good that he downed the first one and quickly moved to the second. They probably just tasted normal, and Red was just so hungry that anything tasted good, but who cares?

  
The food was quickly cleared off the plate, Red even having eaten the small pits of cheese and other bits off food that had fallen out of the taco. He looked sheepishly at Sans, perhaps hoping for more. He was not disappointed, as the cyan eyed skeleton quickly got him more.

  
Red finished off several more before he decided that he was finished. Now he simply looked embarrassed, his face covered in a light blush. Thankfully Sans didn’t seem bothered, and Papyrus just looked amused. “I finally found someone who enjoys my cooking!” Sans cheered, his eyelights turning to a star shape.

  
Red winced a little at the loud voice, but couldn’t help a spark of amusement light through his soul. He watched as Sans exited the room to go clean up, and turned his gaze to the tall skeleton who was sitting next to him on the couch. “I called a friend of mine. We’re going to have to head out soon, is that alright for you?” Papyrus asked, not elaborating further. ‘Where?’ Red signed in reply.

  
“Hotland, we have to go to the lab. We have to get you checked up by Undyne, the royal scientist.” Papyrus replied. Red had never been fond of scientists, but he didn’t want to make Papyrus upset. _**The lab! Maybe there will be a portal there that can take you home, it makes Sense! I remember the portal machine from home…** I shouldn’t have eaten that much, they’re going to be mad… and that means I can’t refuse a trip to the Lab… I don’t want to go back._

  
‘Okay, when are we going?’ Red asked, curious. “As soon as possible. Are you okay with heading out right now?”

  
‘Yes, let’s go.’

  
And with that, Papyrus got up to go get some different clothing on. Sans finished by the time his brother got back downstairs, and said he was planning on going with them. “Bro, you need to go on patrol. And Red needs space right now, so we better not crowd him with people all at once, okay?” Papyrus said, making sure he wasn’t heard by Red. “But Papy, I’m worried about him too. I need to go with you…” Sans said, but he knew he was already going to lose the argument. Paps watched the small skeleton leave, and then reached out to take Red’s hand.

  
Red flinched, which caused Papyrus to frown. But then he took his hand and sighed, getting up. “Do you have any experience with shortcuts or teleportation?” Papyrus asked, looking down at Red. ‘I used to be able to, but Boss did something and now I can’t…’ Red signed after freeing his hand from Paps grasp. “Well, you should hold onto my arm, tight.” Papyrus said, watching as Red did so, and then he activated his magic to pull them into a shortcut.

  
They appeared in front of the lab, and Red stared up at it. He didn’t enjoy the uncomfortable warmth, not at all. He was actually relieved when they stepped inside, and we’re greeted by the miracle that is air conditioning. What surprised him, though, was the sight of the human and flower from before, talking with a nerd version of the fish lady from his universe. Undyne quickly turned to Red and Papyrus, taking note of their appearance and then saying a few words to the human, directing her to a different room.

  
Once that was finished, Undyne went to the two waiting skeletons with a nervous smile decorating her face. “Sorry to make you wait, you wanted me to check up on your friend?” she said, looking at both of them expectantly. “Yes, Red here needs a checkup. I put some healing medicine on some of his wounds, but they haven’t healed completely.” Papyrus responded, and Undyne led them into what looked a little like a doctor’s office, thing, idk.

  
Red followed in silence, and winced a little when he was lifted up by Papyrus, who set him on the table afterward. “Lift up your shirt, I’ll need to check your soul and bandage your ribs.” Undyne said, watching Red pull his shirt up.

  
Papyrus seemed a little bit bothered, while Undyne seemed shocked for only a moment. Red just watched as she rubbed the remaining medicine off with a towel, and then bandage up his wounds. He pulled out his soul for her to examine, and she Checked it. For a moment she glanced at his collar, which was tightly fastened to his neck. Red was attempting to not start freaking out.

  
He didn’t show it, but his soul was starting to race and he was just barely managing to keep his breath steady. Scientists freak him out, he can’t help it. The same goes for doctors. In Underfell, doctors were just another word for scientist, and doctors always ended up harming their patients more than helping them, and oh God these thoughts were making him freak out worse. He must have started trembling, because Papyrus looked at him in a worried way. “Do you want her to stop?”

  
Undyne paused in her actions, looking at Red’s expression. “I can stop, if you’d like…?”

  
Red shook his head, no. ‘I’m fine, it’s fine, go ahead.’ He signed quickly, his eyelights shrinking in his sockets. Only after a few minutes did Undyne stop, saying she was done. Papyrus immediately took a still-trembling Red home, setting him on the couch before draping a big fluffy blanket over him. He tugged the blankets closer around himself in response, looking up at his brothers lazy alternate. Red tried his best to calm himself down, which only worked after a few minutes.

  
He snuggled deeper into the blanket, attempting to fall asleep. Which worked, for the most part.

  
_Red was now in Snowdin, the scent of dust in the air. It was abnormally bright, and he had to squint. Several moments later, he spotted his Boss heading toward him. He got up, aiming to say something, but found he couldn’t. It was disorienting, not being able to speak. He expected the tall skeleton to throw something, hurt him, anything, but he was instead surprised by his next action._   
_Boss picked him up, pressing him close to his ribcage. Red felt his soul soar with hope, seeing Boss’s soft smile, loving eyelights. Then the scene shifted, the expression shifted to anger, and he felt a long, sharp bone pierce his back and stab through his soul._

  
_Everything went dark._


	5. Souls and Pancakes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Red has a nightmare, then there are pancakes!  
> \---  
> Frisk and the gang do some soul-searching (hahaha I think I'm funny but I'm not)

Red woke in a panic, his eyelights flaring with magic for a moment before he winced, and yelped. The sudden jolt sent a creaking pain through his ribs, and he panted heavily. _A_   _traitor, a liar, a marauder with no care…! I’d kill him myself if my magic wasn’t suppressed like this_ … he couldn’t help the panic that still worked it’s way through his soul, making his breathing pick up and bring him into a panic attack.

  
He was so caught up in his thoughts and panic that he didn’t notice the footsteps of someone coming downstairs. He almost didn’t notice when he was scooped up into a gentle but firm embrace, which reminded him of when he was a little kid, with his brother… he was snapped out of his thoughts by words. He heard Papyrus’ voice murmuring calming, soothing things. Normally he would freak out if anyone touched him, but it actually felt a little nice, for once. Much better than any of the recent physical contact he’s had to endure.

  
Red focused on the voice speaking to him, and tried desperately to slow his breathing, like it told him to. He listened to the other skeleton’s breath, and matched it. He was so close to being calm…

  
Sans walked in, but saw the look on Papyrus’ face and immediately slowed down. He seemed like he wanted to do something, but was barely holding back. Red, of course, was sensitive to any sudden appearances at the current moment, and his breathing picked up again. He could feel his magic wanting to react, to fight off the danger, but it was suppressed by his collar. That collar was imbued with his Boss’s magic, and it stopped his own magic according to the will of his brother.

  
One thing made a little more sense now that he remembered that. Boss must have been so angry that he added a function to the collar without knowing, during their little ‘scuffle’ a few days before. Made him unable to speak. Though, the collar had been on him so long that he was pretty sure if he took it off, the functions would still be in effect. His only hope for ever speaking again, was in Boss’s hands.

  
It took about another half hour to finally coax him out of his panic, and calm him down. He was still being hugged by Papyrus, and shifted a little uncomfortably. Papyrus looked like he didn’t want to let go, but sensed his discomfort and set him back down on his place on the couch, wrapping the blanket around the small skeleton. “Are you okay now?” He asked, prompting a nod from Red.

  
Papyrus got up as his phone rang, and trudged out of the room to answer it. Undyne. “Hello?” He spoke into the phone tiredly. “His soul seemed fine, but I got no answers to why he wouldn’t be able to speak or teleport. Most of his injuries were purely physical, if not emotional or mental. I didn’t get to do a full checkup of all his injuries, so I’d like him to come back later, probably alone if you’re uncomfortable with this… maybe when he’s feeling a little better?” Undyne said, stammering still but I’m too lazy to add the effects into this…

  
“Yeah, of course, I’ll tell you when we can come.” Papyrus replied, hoping the conversation would end there. He sensed a worried but busy tone in Undyne’s voice, but didn’t dare ask. “I have to go, then, I’ll see you later.” Undyne finished, and hung up.

  
Red, meanwhile, was now listening to Sans, who had sat next to him and was already launching into a conversation. “So I saw you ate a lot of the tacos, I really need your opinion, please?” Sans asked desperately. ‘I….I didn’t like the crunchy part. It hurt my teeth.’ Red signed back, confused as to why Sans would be asking him, of all people. “Oh! You didn’t like the shell? Well, I guess I could try making soft tacos next time. Would you like to help me cook this time? I could teach you how to make something.” Sans said, his eyelights sparkling into star shapes.

  
The starry eyes amused Red more than anything. But a chance to learn how to cook? He never got to go into a kitchen before, let alone make anything. _It sounds fun, I guess. **What if Boss finds out and gets angry?** I can deal with that later, plus I’d prefer to make sure my food isn’t_ poisoned… as soon as Red nodded he was being dragged into the kitchen by his hand, and looked around the new room. “I’m going to teach you how to make pancakes, since they’re pretty easy to make, especially since we have the mix.” Sans said, rambling on about the best type of pancakes and what foods were similar to pancakes…

  
Red didn’t even notice he’d zoned out until Sans had asked him a question, having gotten out the bowl and the box of mix, and a whisk. “Do you want to measure the ingredients?” Sans asked, repeating his question. Red thought for a moment and nodded. He took a measuring cup and put it under the sink, getting the needed water. He shifted it carefully over to the bowl, but his hands were trembling too much and he dropped it, causing water to splash everywhere.

  
He winced and covered his head with his hands, expecting some sort of punishment. But the only response was the running of water, and a hand gently grabbing one of his own. “It’s okay, I’ll help you.” Sans said, putting the cup back in Red’s hand and gently guiding his hand to the bowl, making sure it didn’t spill again.

  
It took a while for them to finish the food, but by the time they did, Red was pretty sure he could eat at least five of the large pancakes. He was actually feeling somewhat happy as he served the pancakes onto plates. After the water incident, the only thing he messed up on was flipping the pancakes. He counted that as a success in his book. Now he sat down, and immediately started eating.

  
He had them finished in under ten minutes, and Sans just laughed once he did finish. “Do you want mine, too? I have some more food in the fridge.” Sans said, offering his plate. Red shook his head not even a second later. ‘I’m fine.’ He signed, feeling mostly full.

  
Sans nodded and started to do the dishes after he finished his own. Red went back to the living room and curled up in his blanket, getting comfortable.

  
****

Frisk waited for Undyne to come back, sitting in the wheeled office chair and spinning around. She heard a giggle in Chara’s direction, and smiled a little. Frisk balanced on her knees, and then started spinning around, aiming to amuse Chara even more. She’d not been able to explain her goal to Undyne yet, because Red and Papyrus had been there. But now she heard Undyne returning, and she fell out of the chair in surprise, groaning when she landed on the floor.

  
Frisk immediately stood back up, at attention. “What did you need again?” Undyne asked, requesting further elaboration. “I found a ghost in my universe, and only I can see her, and I need to get her a soul. I was thinking maybe I could give half of mine to her, but I can’t do it myself, I don’t know how.” Frisk launched into her explanation, smiling. “No, half a soul wouldn’t work well. It would also cause a danger for both of you. If one of you were to die, the other would as well, and if your friend died she would be gone forever, as well as that half of your soul. And an artificial soul wouldn’t work, because she’s human.” Undyne said, frowning.

  
Frisk thought for a moment, frowning as well. That meant they would need a human soul, preferably full. “And if you found a human soul, it would have to be the same trait as what she used to have. Which I’m guessing is determination, if she can actually be there as a ghost.” Undyne added.

  
“So we have to find a human, with a determination soul, and basically kill them? I can’t do that, because one, a human can’t take another humans soul, and two, I’d never kill another human being!” as Frisk said these words, their gazes all shifted to Flowey. “Why are you looking at me?” He said, ducking his head at the stares. “You have to do it, please Flowey, it will be worth it…” Frisk begged, her eyes pleading. “Huh, alright. But it’s only because I absolutely despise most humans…” He muttered in reply.

  
“But how will we find a human with the correct soul type?” Frisk asked, realizing it would probably be impossible. “My cameras spotted a human passing through Snowdin. I didn’t see many of their fights with any monsters, but I’m pretty sure they have a determination soul.” Undyne said, blinking. Wondering why these kids were so quick to soak their hands in the blood of other humans.

  
“So we are going to Snowdin… yippeee…..” Flowey grumbled, shivering at even the thought. The snow and cold made his leaves hurt, and it was just generally uncomfortable there. It was no place for a flower. Frisk giggled “I can get you a scarf! You will look so nice in it!” she said, grinning mischievously. “Hold up, maybe we’ll meet them in Waterfall, because we sure as hell can’t walk fast enough to reach Snowdin if they’re going to keep heading this way.”

  
“Aww. I’m still going to get you a scarf though, you’re going to look fabulous.” Frisk declared. “We should head off! Bye Undyne, thank you for your help!” she then said, and walked out of the lab.


	6. A Dilemma

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frisk starts to have doubts about her decision.  
> \---   
> Undyne is the stalker that everyone knows and loves   
> \--   
> Red has a nice, comfortable, warm time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Certain parts of the chapter were shorter than I'd like, but I was having a bit of trouble with writing it. And I thought whoever would actually want to read this probably needs a chapter soon, so I worked on this pretty quickly. It took so long because I have school to work on, but I somehow managed it today!

Undyne walked calmly to her computer, looking at the security feed, watching the path of the human that she had spoken to. She’d decided she wasn’t going to help Frisk, partially because she didn’t want to be involved, and partially because she wondered how well she could do on her own, other than with the flower for help. The flower gave her chills. Usually, in this universe, Floweys didn’t have enough intelligence to think, let alone decide to fight and decide to kill a human. Yet this one did just that.

  
She turned to the screen that was trained on the human who was here first. Brown-black hair, Red eyes, and a green sweater with a thin yellow stripe. Undyne had seen the human often talking to themselves. The humans name, also, was apparently Chara.

  
Undyne would have to keep an eye on them, though. She wasn’t very keen to see a human dead, but it would be interesting to watch their journeys. It’d been an eventful half a day too, since they had left. Flowey nearly had gotten kidnapped by one of his underswap counterparts. She’d had a good laugh watching that little bit.

  
***

Frisk groaned, slouching as she walked. “I’m tired, can we stop again?” she begged, sending Chara a tired glance. They’d stopped several times since they had left the lab, and had only reached Waterfall. Thankfully, when she’d met Alphys, a few flirty jokes and actions was enough to calm the warrior dinosaur lizard down. Now she was starting to be doubtful of what she had set upon doing.

  
_What the hell possessed me to say I’d kill another human? I’m supposed to be the nice one, but now I promised Chara this. Maybe if I keep getting us to stop I can think of another way. We could exit the underground and get a soul from a dying hu- no, that would require me to kill a monster. Because I highly doubt any monster here would allow their soul to be used._

  
Flowey shuddered “the Floweys might come back, Frisk, please no.” He said, he’d basically been scarred for life after that. “…Fine.” _I’m such a pushover. Maybe once we get the humans soul, I can focus my determination to use on someone else? Use on the human? That could work, they could reset and maybe it would work. We’d have to get Chara out of this au first, though._

  
Frisk snapped back to attention with a start when she felt Chara take her hand. “It’ll be okay.” The ghost murmured quietly with her gaze angled at the ground, eyes hooded. Frisk hesitated and then nodded, her grip on the comforting hand tightening for a moment. God, this would look really weird to Flowey, wouldn’t it? She looked at the flower, confused to find him straining his eyes to see anything possible within danger range.

  
“Calm down Flowey, it’s like you are eager to get that scarf I was talking about!” Frisk smiled and poked him. “No I am not, I just want to keep an eye out for the one we’re kind of trying to find,” He grumbled, casting a glare in her direction.   
“calm down, we’re very unlikely to see them—” Frisk paused as they came to the entrance area to Snowdin. It… it was blocked, with a build up of snow.

***

  
Red was curled up in a ball, eyes closed tightly. Though, after a few moments he opened his eyes back up. Weird dream. He had dreamed that he had a skeleton tail. Well, it wasn’t that strange because he did used to have one, but it got removed by either his brother or Gaster. He couldn’t remember it very well. He was more surprised that he had a dream about it though, it didn’t seem like something very important that would be on his mind. He kinda wished he did still have a tail. _Is it weird that I want that? **Boss wouldn’t really approve though.**_

  
_How should I care what he would approve of? If he really cared he would be here, and he would have gotten me back. He wouldn’t have nearly killed me_! Red jolted with the force of that thought that shot through his mind. Was that really true? Did the Boss not care about him at all?

  
…Red didn’t want that to be true. He wanted Boss to care about him, be a true brother… but it was unlikely, the way he was treated. Red let out a small growl, just wanting to forget about that for a while. Then, Papyrus came in from whatever room, causing Red to jump in surprise, having not expected the sudden appearance. “Calm down, bud. Undyne told me we gotta get you to exercise a little. So we’re going on a walk.”

  
Red tilted his head in a confused way. A walk? He guessed he could deal with a little walk. “We aren’t going into any place with a lot of people, so I think I might take you to Waterfall.” Papyrus said, mostly speaking to himself in an out loud thought. ‘Alright.’ Red got up and walked over to Papyrus, already ready to go. “Hmm… I think you’ll need a different jacket.” He said and jogged up the stairs, disappearing into his room.

  
He returned a few moments later with a dark gray hoodie, that was around Red’s size. “This used to be Blue’s, but now he never uses it. Red shrugged off his coat and put on the new one. While he did like his usual one, it was pretty ruined anyways. This different one felt warmer too, even though it was just a hoodie. At least it didn’t have half of its fabric ripped to shreds. And it felt a lot more secure. But it still just felt like a coat. Maybe he could ask Papyrus to buy him a new winter jacket. _No, I won’t make them waste money on me._

  
Now, Red simply held onto Papyrus’ arm as they walked outside. The cold actually felt a little nice, somewhat comforting. But what was more comforting was the warmth he could feel from Papyrus. As they headed to Waterfall, they passed a few monsters.

  
Unlucky for Red, one of them -a bunny monster- hopped up to Papyrus, but fortunately seemed to not focus on the smaller skeleton. “Hello Papyrus!” the bunny monster said, smiling. “Hello, there. I was just heading to Waterfall.” Paps replied. “Oh, well you’re out of luck then! The entrance has been snowed up since last night.”

  
“That’s… unfortunate.” Papyrus frowned. Had he seen it snowed up? Maybe he was just confusing himself. “Have you seen Sans?” Papyrus asked after a moment. “Yes, he was talking to a human near your station” they replied, and then ended the conversation with a quick goodbye, hopping off.

  
“I’m… Going to teleport us. Hold on tight.” Papyrus muttered, and charged his magic as soon as Red’s grip tightened. In less than a moment, they were at the station, and they saw Sans talking to a human a few feet away. “Bro!” Papyrus said, smiling as if in relief. Paps was worried that his brother would have been killed. That would mean the human would end up resetting, and then he would have to face the choice of sending Red back to that hellhole of a home, or risking him disappearing forever from existence, by going through another world’s reset.

  
“Papy!” Sans exclaimed and looked over at Papyrus with a big smile. Red just huddled closer to Papyrus’ side, causing the skeleton to move his arm to just rest around the spooked skeletons shoulders. The two moved a little closer, looking down at the human.

  
The red eyes gave Red the chills. He was comforted by the arm around him, though, and pressed closer to Papyrus’ side. He was warm, and comfy to be near. He wasn’t really focusing to the conversation happening currently between the human, Papyrus, and Sans. He was never allowed to even hug his own brother. Not even touch him. So it was nice to finally get to be close to someone. Even though his thoughts were eating at him, wanting him to get back home.

  
Oh, what he would give to just be able to forget everything, and start his life anew. He’d still have the scars, the injuries, but he wouldn’t have to have the temptation to dwell on the memories.

  
Things like that were just not possible, Red would never be able to get his own way. His fate always depended on the wills of others. But he had to admit, it was nice sometimes just being able to rely on others to tell him what to do and what would be best.

 

He was snapped out of his thoughts by a question being direction toward him. He cast a bewildered glance at Papyrus at seeing the expectant expressions on Sans’ and the humans faces. “You warm there, Red?” Sans giggled and looked at Red. Red realized, he had ended up closing his eyes when he had zoned out. After a few moments he actually nodded in response. He would not be ashamed! Never!

  
After a few more minutes of talking -after they had asked Red the embarrassing question- Sans said he needed to continue his patrol, and the human wanted to continue on into Snowdin. So Red and Papyrus simply moved on into the forest, following the path. When the path ended at a door, they stopped. “I always come here. At least once a week. There’s an old man on the other side who likes to share puns with me.” Papyrus explained.

  
Red gave a shudder, ‘In my universe, a crazy old lady lives on the other side. She never comes out but every time a human goes through they’re half dead by the time they get past her.’ He signed, looking up at Papyrus. The tall skeleton rose a ‘brow’ and just looked down at Red for a few moments. “That sounds scary as hell. Lucky you’re here, then, right? No spooky crazy ladies to haunt your dreams.” He said, smiling. Red simply shrugged in response. The warmth and close proximity was strangely making him drowsy.

  
It was probably the fact that he was a lazy piece of crap, with no stamina whatsoever as well. Papyrus seemed to sense this, and picked him up, like a baby again. “Go ahead and close your eyes, I’ll be walking home.” He said, and started walking.

  
Red couldn’t help it when his eyes drifted slowly shut and the wonderful embrace of sleep took him.


	7. Jealousy and Cuddles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frisk gets some nice cuddles, after she has a few doubts.  
> \---  
> Red learns about jealousy.

Frisk sighed. The three had found a small cave nearby the entrance that they could all fit in -flowey found it- and they were curled up inside. Flowey thankfully seemed to be asleep, and Frisk looked at Chara. “Chara, do you have any ideas on how we could avoid killing the other human?” Frisk asked very quietly, as to not wake up the flower sleeping nearby. “Maybe they’ll give me their soul.” Chara replied, staring off into space. “I went to go check on them, and they look almost exactly like me. Underswap.” She finished, looking at the human.

  
“But they act a lot like you.” Chara added, shrugging and turning her gaze away.  
“Weird. This whole underswap concept is weird. I’m so used to mentally attaching personalities to the names of people I know, but this place completely screwed it up. It’s making me feel weird and I hate it. What if the… the version of me here is trying to make me mess up and hurt someone?” Frisk pulled her knees to her chest, huddling quietly.

  
“You won’t hurt anyone, Frisk. It will all be fine. I’m sure we can figure something out with the other human, if we try.” Chara replied, voice showing little emotion. “…I still don’t understand so many things, though. Why am I able to touch you, and see you? Would I be able to see the other version of myself here?” Frisk wondered, staring at Chara.

  
“Like I said before, it is your determination. My soul was originally red, so I have determination too, which is what has allowed me to become a ghost like this. Your determination linked up with mine, so you can see me, and touch me.” Chara explained, frowning a little as she spoke. Frisk thought that little habit of Chara’s was kind of cute, when the ghost was thinking of something. Just don’t let the ghost know that.

  
“Still weird. Chara, what do you miss most about being…alive…?” Frisk asked, tilting her head. “Probably… the food.” Chara smiled and looked over at Frisk. “Pff, other than the food.” Frisk snickered. “Probably…. I don’t know, really. I really liked hugs though.” Chara shrugged. “I’ll give you a hug!” Frisk said, reaching out her arms. Chara rolled her eyes and hugged Frisk. The ghost tensed up for a few moments before relaxing, as if not used to actually being able to touch anyone.

  
Frisk was happy that Chara felt comfortable around her. Now, they still had to wait, though. Sigh. Maybe they could get Alphys to clear away the snow.

  
Either way, Frisk was going to hug Chara for as long as possible.

  
**

  
Red was starting to wake up. But he was so comfortable, so warm, he didn’t want to wake up…. But then. Then. He felt the gentle rise and fall of another sleepy skeletons breathing. What….? He slowly opened his eyes and saw he was cuddled up to Papyrus, who was still asleep. Thankfully, they were only on the couch. Red could have guessed that Papyrus had simply been too lazy to walk himself up the stairs before falling asleep.

  
Still, this was very embarrassing. He slowly slipped away, going off the couch. Papyrus frowned in his sleep for a few moments, but otherwise he didn’t wake up. Red managed to sneak up the stairs, and nearly ran face first into Sans. The blue and grey clad skeleton squeaked slightly, looking at Red with wide eyelights. “Red….? What are you doing up here?” He asked, looking confused. ‘I…I don’t know, Papyrus is on the couch downstairs.’ Red signed, frowning slightly. Was he not supposed to be up here?

  
He hoped he wouldn’t get in trouble for being up here. “Hmm, he’s on the couch, so you can’t sit on it,” Sans guessed, nodding in understanding. “Well, if you want something to pass the time, I could give you a towel so you could take a bath.” He added, smiling.

  
Red thought for a moment, then nodded. Personal hygiene was important! Sans quickly rushed into a different room, and came back a minute later with a big, fluffy towel. “Well, I’m going to have to go, Red, and Papyrus should be awake by the time you’re out of the bathroom.” Sans said, giving Red a quick hug before going down the stairs and out the door. The hug kind of shocked Red, for a moment. He definitely wasn’t expecting it.

  
He snapped out of his short little shock and went to the bathroom, closing the door behind him. By habit, he knew not to lock the door. His Boss would literally break the door down if Red ended up locking it accidentally at home. So, he assumed it would be the same here. He placed the folded towel on the sink -yes, even skeleton bathrooms have a toilet and sink, because decoration and possible guests- and went to the bathtub, filling it up.

  
While he was waiting for it to fill, he peeled off his shirt and shorts. He didn’t wear a coat any more, he preferred to just have a blanket around him. Which was left downstairs with Papyrus.

  
He glanced down at the scars and now mostly healed injuries that decorated his body. He was sure he could remember most of the incidents that caused them. A solid fraction of them were from Gaster, though.

  
The scar on his eyesocket still kind of stung. Maybe the bath would help. He slowly slid into the water once it was full, the water stinging against his unhealed injuries before it started to feel rather soothing.

  
After about an hour, the water had started to go a little cold, and Red decided it was finally time to get out. It was really relaxing, to be able to take a bath without a pissy skeleton nagging him every ten minutes. There was a small knock on the door, and Red jumped, startled. It’s not like he could say something so the other wouldn’t come in. _Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit…!_

  
Red tried tapping the side of the tub to get some sort of message across. Thankfully, that seemed to work. “You still awake, Bud? Hope ya didn’t fall asleep in the bathtub.” Papyrus’ voice snickered from the other side of the door.  
Red rolled his eyelights and slowly got out of the tub, so he wouldn’t fall.

Unfortunately, luck was not on his side, and he slipped, almost clipping his head on the edge of the sink. Still, he was now on the floor, groaning in pain. “Are you okay?” Papyrus cracked open the door and peeked in, studiously avoiding looking at the small skeleton on the floor. Red waved him away and sat up, rubbing his head.

  
Truthfully, it hurt like hell, and he wanted to fucking cry, but he better not show any weakness in front of this skeleton. What he lacked in basically everything, he made up for in at least a tiny shred of dignity. Red grabbed the towel, and wrapped it around himself. He stalked over to the tub and pulled the drain, then went to the door. He should probably get dressed first. He grabbed his clothes and pulled them on, then walked out of the bathroom. “Alright mister Red, I need to take you to get some new clothes.” Papyrus said as soon as he stepped out.

  
Red stared up at Papyrus with a confused expression for a while. ‘Why would you get me stuff?’ he eventually signed, still confused. _I better convince him to not waste money on me. Clothes are expensive. That would be so bad. Plus, I don’t even need new clothes. The most I need is to wash the current ones I have, I can survive for a while-_

  
“Because ya stink. And no arguing, we’re getting you clothes and you’re going to like it.” Papyrus said, joking about the first part. He patted the smol skeletons head. ‘….okay.’ Red simply replied. What? He’s not going to argue with an order. He just wants Papyrus to be happy, or at least not angry at him. It was kind of like Papyrus was his new Boss. But…nicer.

  
Red still wanted to get back, but he guessed he wouldn’t likely be able to get back any time soon. So, he’d just have to endure -which wouldn’t be hard- until he found a way back.

  
As normal, he grabbed onto Papyrus’s arm as they teleported to their destination. His senses were suddenly assaulted by bright lights, strange smells, and the appearance of people around them. He pressed to Papyrus’ side as he stared around at the people. A comforting arm wrapped around him as they slowly walked to a large room with clothing on racks. Red’s gaze immediately zeroed in on a winter jacket. Black, with fur on the hood. He wants.

  
Papyrus followed his gaze and smiled. “Jeez, ya already found somethin’ you like, haven’t ya?” He snickered and led Red over to the rack. Red hesitantly took the coat, looking up at Papyrus, who gave him a nod. Red would just have to carry it until they could pay.

  
Over the next hour they chose a few more articles of clothing, Red insisting on the fact that if they buy anything for him, it should be black. ‘Other colors irritate his eyes’ he claimed. Papyrus didn’t bother arguing, he was too lazy to. When they reached the counter to pay for the items, Red almost immediately hated the cashier. Stupid fucking bunny looked at Papyrus like she wanted to fuck him right then and there.

  
She looked down at Red with a judging frown. “You got a kid now? He looks like a five year old.”

  
Red would growl if he wasn’t afraid of Papyrus being mad.

  
“He’s not a kid, he’s basically my age. We just… he moved recently to Snowdin.” Papyrus sighed, seeming tired of this already. “Hmm. Well, anyways, we should go on that date~” The bunny said, batting her eyelashes at Papyrus. Red’s grip tightened on the Papyrus, prompting a strange look from the taller skeleton.

Papyrus turned his attention back to the bunny. “No thanks, I just want to pay for the clothes.” He said, sounding irritated. “Well, there’s always another time.” The cashier smiled and began scanning the clothes.

  
Red didn’t even know what he was feeling by the time they had gotten teleported home. He just knew that he hated that bunny lady, that she definitely wasn’t going to get her hands on Papyrus, no matter what happened. And he kind of felt like clinging to Papyrus for the rest of the day, even though he didn’t end up doing that. He didn’t want to make Papyrus uncomfortable or upset, that would be horrible.

  
Red just curled up in his blanket on the couch for the rest of the day. 


	8. Collars and Souls

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The problem with having all my ideas right before I go to bed, is that I never have the time at that point to put them into action.
> 
> Boss finds out a pathetic dinosaur has been added to the extinction list.  
> \--  
> Frisk reaches an agreement.  
> \--  
> Red gets a new collar.

Boss trudged through the beginning pathways of Hotland, heading to the lab. He didn’t understand why anyone would want to live near lava- it was like a request to be knocked in at any moment. He made sure to keep an extra keen eyesocket out for any attackers. Couldn’t walk anywhere in this universe without having the danger of being killed.

  
He looked at the doors of the lab as he approached. Alphys better be there. He’d called a few days earlier, right after he realized Red was missing, and told her to try and start up the machine in case he needed it. Any call since went to voice mail, so he hoped that meant she would be working on the damned portal or whatever. He didn’t have any love for science- except when it helped him directly.

But as he walked in, his hopes dropped. The lights were dark and there was a pile of dust on the floor.

Boss stared at the dust, feeling rage build up in his soul. A growl escaped him as he walked to the elevator, his eyelights having gone dark. He was going to find his brother, and find the human who did this- and any one who got in his way would have to pray for mercy. He’d start up the damn machine himself. Even if he didn’t specifically know how…

  
The Great and Terrible Papyrus could figure out anything! He was clever enough.   
Even if it did take a lot of time, he could figure it out. There ought to be blueprints, right? He took the elevator down to the true lab. As soon as the doors opened there was a weird… dog thing running at him. He growled and kicked it, sending it running off and yipping. Stupid mutts, they always, always wanted to mess with him. Even the royal guard ones. He made sure to put those, however, into their place.

  
Soon enough he navigated the hallways, finding the machine. He groaned, knowing that this would take a while.

  
**

  
Frisk had been working hard to find a way to get past. She had decided upon locating Alphys, and getting her to take it down. The trouble is, it’s really hard to locate energetic dinosaur monsters in Waterfall. But now, she was pretty sure she had found her. Or at least, got to a place where she was resting.

  
Frisk walked up to the strange looking house, and knocked on the door. Alphys opened the door soon, looking startled. “I need your help!” Frisk stated immediately, smiling brightly. “With what?” Alphys queried, still looking confused. “There’s a snow buildup on the way to Snowdin.” Frisk replied, holding out a hand for Alphys to take.

  
Alphys followed while Frisk dragged her by the hand. She was still genuinely confused. But eventually they did reach the small barrier of snow, and she finally got it. “You want me to take it down?” the lizard monster tilted her head and looked at Frisk. “Yep!” Frisk replied cheerfully. “I’ll do it for 10 G.” Alphys replied, summoning a spear. Frisk simply shrugged in response and handed her 15 G.

“keep the change.” Frisk smiled widely. “Yeah okay.” The monster rolled her eyes and several more glowing Spears surrounded her, and the snow. Soon enough all of them fired, and the snow was a steaming puddle of water on the ground.

  
Frisk winced slightly, rubbing the side of her head. That sound had been near deafening. “Thank you Alphys!” She said cheerfully after a moment and threw her arms around the yellow scaled monster. Alphys hugged back for a few moments before pulling away, grumbling as she waved a claw and turned to go back home.  
And… Frisk freaking squeaked when Chara appeared out of nowhere and took her hand. “Finally, it’s gone.” The ghost muttered, looking grumpy for some reason.

  
Flowey appeared on Frisk’s shoulder after a second and pointed to the now cleared path. “Onward!” He shouted dramatically. Frisk stayed firmly in place until, “….Please?” and now she walked into Snowdin. Finally they would get to see the other human and negotiate.

  
Frisk’s boots made steady crunching sounds through the snow as she walked, and soon enough she walked past Gril- No, Muffet’s. She’d check in the inn and then check in the forest. Those were the two most likely options. She walked into the Inn and stepped up to the counter. The bunny monster standing there smiled cheerfully, it’s fluffy tail twitching in a friendly way. “Hello! How may I help you?” they asked, expression never changing. “Have you seen a human here? Other than me, of course. We’re looking for them.” Frisk gestured to Flowey. Chara snorted softly a few feet away, checking out a strange plant and murmuring something under her breath.

  
“Another human spent the night here, but she left toward the forest.” The bunny replied, smile ever present. “Thank you for your help!” Frisk said, and set 8 G on the counter. She turned and walked out. “You’re gonna spend all our money like that, Frisk.” Flowey sighed and rolled his eyes. “Let’s get going.” He said, and added a ‘please’ reluctantly afterward.

  
Frisk nodded and carried on her way. Sometimes she was too nice for her own good, going so far to even make rash nice decisions. Like the choice to kill another human being just to be nice to a ghost that wasn’t even alive -no duh- and probably at least ten years old. Ghosts never grew up though, she guessed, ugh… she’d figure it out. Maybe.

  
But soon they were in the forest. This was sure to be fun. Well, fun meaning they were just about to possibly go kill someone. But they’d try not to. It was all too soon when they heard another voice, talking out loud to no one in particular. Wait… there was another voice now? What?

  
“I’m glad you were finally able to find a soul. Now you can finally be happy.” The first voice said, and Frisk peeked past a tree to see the other human. Other Chara. Oh god, they looked so similar. The… other Chara was speaking to an almost identical version of Frisk. This was bound to be complicated. “But we still have to work on it! You’ve had the soul for almost a day now, and you have made progress. Now—” they paused when Frisk stepped out of hiding, Flowey on her shoulder.

  
Before anything was said by the humans, Flowey spoke up, “OKAY, before this goes any farther we need nicknames for you guys, this is confusing me too much.” The random general shout had Frisk bursting into giggles. The hilarity of this whole situation was just too much.

  
“Um…” the other Chara just looked confused, but she shrugged. “Um, I guess I could go by Flower?” she shrugged. “I mean, I’ve been called that before. It’d be easier for me.” She smiled a little, turning to face them better. “Er, hey, me and ‘Flower’ can match, I’ll go by Rose…” the ‘evil’ version of Frisk stated. “I mean, you two don’t have to go by anything else, you are from the original universe.” Flower gestured to Frisk and Chara.

  
“I can agree to that.” Frisk said, while Chara bristled. “They can see me??” the ghost looked at Frisk for answers, and she promptly sent a generally confused look back. “Yeah. We can.” Rose -this was still too weird to Frisk- stated. “This is awkward.” Chara said, huffing quietly, and stepping a little closer to Frisk.

  
“Why are you two here anyways?” came Flower’s question. “We um, sort of came, to get a soul. But we totally don’t, like, want to kill you outright, we just want to come upon some sort of agreement.” Frisk explained quickly.

  
Flower blinked, not even looking surprised really… that was odd. “I could give you my soul. But we have to make an agreement of sorts. And it probably shouldn’t be made out in the cold snow.” She replied eventually. After a minute of letting it sink in, everyone nodded. They headed… somewhere. They didn’t head to town- there wasn’t anywhere they could talk in private there. Frisk faithfully followed the two alternates to what seemed to be an abandoned cabin.

  
Frisk stopped in her tracks before she could walk up the steps. “Who lives here?” she asked, feeling a little uneasy. “No one really, we just found it and we’ve been using it as a little shelter for a while.” Flower answered, offering a reassuring smile as she walked inside. As soon as they were inside, Flowey ended up on the arm of the couch, just laying there. “I think there was a gardening pot somewhere in one of the closets…” Flower said, looking at the small monster on the couch.

“Let’s just get things settled first.” Frisk sighed and sat down on the couch, Chara settling down next to her. Flower sat on the floor.

  
“I was already planning on giving up my soul so the barrier could be broken. So, long story short, if I give Chara my soul, I want you guys to find a way to free the monsters in this time line. And you have to take care of Fr-Rose.” Flower launched into an explanation, looking at the two on the couch.

  
“M-Maybe this is a bad idea.. right, guys? Maybe we should all go to the surface – we could get there, if we get a monster soul.” Flowey offered from the armrest. “We could find two human souls! Yes, and we could use them to free the rest of the monsters, right?” Flowey smiled nervously. “No… I’m happy to give up my soul. I think this is a necessary sacrifice that can be taken.” Flower said softly.

“Well, we don’t have to do it right now, though. We can go get some cinnamon buns from the shop in Snowdin!” Frisk offered after a minute.   
That’s one thing they could all agree to.

 

 

**

  
Red slowly opened his eyes. Nap time had ended he supposed. Or just, regular sleeping time. Either way, he sat up and blinked drearily. He saw Papyrus walk into the room almost immediately after he was initially awake. “Yay, you’re up!” He said, seeming uncharacteristically happy or excited. ‘Who injected you with pure caffeine this morning?’ Red signed with an inward groan. Normally he wouldn’t be inclined to make such comments, even if it was in sign language, but he was not feeling very up to anything today. _So lucky Boss isn’t here, he’d be pissed if I said something like that to him._

  
The tall skeleton just snickered at that, and sat down next to Red. “Hey Red, would you be okay with me taking off your collar? At least for a little while?” Papyrus asked carefully, studying the other’s gaze. Red blinked and shifted nervously. _**No! You can’t take it off, the Boss will be furious!** I don’t even think I could take it off if I wanted to. It might be stuck on with magic. Hell, I’m pretty sure it is. Boss didn’t really change anything since the day he made me start wearing it. _

  
-memory-

  
_Red waited at his station, rubbing at a mark on his jaw. He’d ended up crossing some sort of line with his brother at some point that day, and got a good smack because of it. He was pretty sure one of his upper teeth was loose from that, and was likely to fall out._ I’ll have to get a gold one _, he mused to himself, a small grin forming on his face. He somehow managed not to fall asleep for today, and he felt a little proud of himself for that. But only a little. He’d been awake for about three days straight now- it wasn’t exactly a big accomplishment. He felt like his brother was getting more violent with him. Normally the tall skeleton was already pretty rough, but now… he’d had more bones broken than any human would likely have in their lifetime._

  
_Nonetheless, Red would still be loyal to his brother. He couldn’t just forget that he’d practically fathered the younger at some point. Actually, he likely would forget. He was pretty sure his memory was changing- that Gaster had created him after Boss and ended up dumping him with the younger skeleton. He was likely soon to forget the real story completely._

  
_Red was jolted out of his thoughts by the incoming footsteps of his brother, and lifted his head. The threatening skeleton had something in his hands.. a collar? Weird. “Sans! I’ve gotten a little ‘present’ for you.” Red could practically hear the smirk in Boss’ voice. He felt himself being picked up and pulled out of his station, and hands wrapping something around his neck. He felt a jolt of panic, thinking he was about to get strangled, when nothing really happened for the next few moments._

  
_Then, he actually felt it. A sharp bolt of pain shot through him like an arrow, and he had to struggle not to scream. He heard the telltale spark of magic closing the collar around his neck. He didn’t realize he had blacked out until he sat up and saw the figure of his brother walking away. He frantically started pulling at the collar around his neck. He wasn’t a pet! He couldn’t wear a collar! But every time he tugged on it, even with all his force, it didn’t come off. It was like it had been glued to the bone. He could pull it -if he used all of his force- about half an inch away from his neck. When he tried to use his magic on it, pain flared in his soul._

  
_A stick! Yes, he could use a stick to try and get it off. He searched endlessly for a stick thick enough to help- and he eventually found one. He jammed it through the narrow gap between his neck and the collar, and tried to snap it off. He ended up blacking out again, and had to pick himself up off the ground, pain steadily drumming through his body now. He felt the trickle of liquid down his jaw, and found his tooth that was previously loose in the snow. He wiped the blood from his mouth, panting heavily from his efforts._

  
_The collar hadn’t come off. He was stuck with it._

  
-end memory-

  
Red only realized he had zoned out when Pap snapped his fingers to get his attention. This caused Red to wince, but his attention was definitely grabbed. He lifted his hands to sign out his next sentence, ‘You can try if you want. I think it’s fused on with magic.’ He ended up replying, looking down. He felt guilty for whatever reason. Papyrus and Sans were trying so hard to help him, but Red new he was a lost cause. They were just wasting their time. Even if they never did send him home, Boss would come and likely hurt them. Red didn’t want anyone being hurt.

  
“I’m pretty sure I can get it off. But wait here- I have a present for you.” Papyrus said, and then got up, disappearing into the kitchen. Those words caused a shudder to go down Red’s spine. Presents never meant anything good in Red’s case. It always meant something painful or something he would never consent to- and usually always ended with him passing out on the ground, too weak to get up. Happy dick surprise, Red! Quite literally half the times.

  
But he was distracted from his thoughts when Papyrus came back, a bag in hand. Red didn’t expect it to be anything to hurt him- after all, this strange version of his brother had never laid a finger of harm on him. But he still couldn’t help a feeling of dread.

  
He was not really relieved when Papyrus pulled a box out of the bag. Wow, impressive. A box. Would be one of the less dangerous ‘gifts’ he’d been given. Papyrus handed the box to Red, and the small skeleton brushed his fingers over the lid before opening it. Inside was a red spiked collar. It was similar to his own, but when Red picked it up there was a fur lining and the leather was a lot smoother than the one he wore.

  
“I know you probably are used to wearing a collar, but until you’re comfortable without one I thought I’d get you something a little more comfortable to wear.” Papyrus said softly, smiling. Red couldn’t really react any specific way other than staring down at it with interested eyelights. ‘Do you really think you could… get this one off?’ Red put down the box to sign, and pointed to his current decoration.

“Yes, if I cancel out its magic with mine it should work. It’s even better since me and your brother should have similar magic.” He said, and slowly reached his hand toward Red’s collar. Red pushed the bag and box out of the way for the moment, and sat with his back facing Papyrus on the couch, so it would be easier to access the buckle on his collar.

  
Papyrus fiddled with it for a moment, seeing if it would come off without the use of magic. No such luck. The telltale crackle of magic was heard by Red, and soon enough he felt the tight collar around his neck tumble to the floor.

  
He felt arms wrapping around him comfortingly. He hadn’t noticed he’d started to panic as soon as the magic was heard, and he was now trembling and tears rolled down his face. He couldn’t see anything- he didn’t recall closing his eyes.

But then the other, more comfortable collar was clicked in the previous ones place, and Red felt himself calm down a great amount. God, that collar, he hadn’t even realized how much security it gave him. Was it that he was just conditioned to wearing a collar? Or maybe he actually liked it.

  
He didn’t have much time to think on that, on he snuggled backward into Papyrus’ grip, seeking comfort. The new collar actually did feel a lot better, it didn’t grate against the bone. Red was sure there was likely a mark there, but the irritable pain was soothed by the cool fur- and was that Papyrus’ magic he could feel in the collar? It felt a lot better than before. Where there had previously been restricting magic, now there was soothing magic.

  
But… he still couldn’t see. What was going on? If the collar was off, why couldn’t he speak? He had known this was likely to happen, that the magic was too deeply ingrained in his own reserves of magic that they still affected him. He felt, though, that he would actually be able to use his magic now. No way he was going to use it at the moment though.

  
He wasn’t closing his eyes, that was for sure. Then why couldn’t he see? …was that a side effect of taking off the collar? Was he blind now?!

  
-POV switch-

  
Papyrus looked down at Red, he was happy the small skeleton was able to relax around him. But a whole new look of distress had worked its way over Red’s face. His eyelights appeared to have dimmed greatly. “Red, Red, it’s okay. Are you feeling alright?” He asked gently. Undyne had said Red was likely to experience some side effects with his magic for a few days, and had warned about temporary blindness. He knew that Red would be panicking a lot more if Paps hadn’t put his own magic into the collar to provide emotional comfort.

  
‘I can’t … see.’ Red signed, his hands shaking. “Alright, it’s going to be fine. It should only last a few days, and if it lasts longer, I promise I’ll find a way to fix it, okay? The magic from that piece of shit—” Papyrus cast a glare to the fizzing collar on the ground, “Was affecting your magic greatly. It’ll take a few days for you to adjust.” He explained, his arms being looped under Red’s arms and around the small skeletons ribcage. He would provide as much comfort as was needed.

  
He knew Red had heard him, so he wasn’t worried about that part. He’d have to distract Red somehow from his distress. “Hey Red, are you hungry?” He asked suddenly, resting his chin on the top of Red’s skull. Red carefully nodded, so he wasn’t going to bonk his head on Papyrus’ chin. Papyrus got up, getting an idea.

He looked down at Red, who was now sitting alone on the couch. “Hey, Red, you wanna come with me?” He asked. ‘But you can’t carry me while you cook…’ Red signed, his expression turning to one of confusion.

  
“Oh yes I can! Come on, I’ll help you.” Papyrus sat in front of the couch, back facing Red. He reached backward and guided Red hands around his neck. “You can ride on my back, then I won’t have to hold onto you, as long as you hold on tight.” Papyrus said. This was a childish endeavor, but he was determined to get Red distracted. And that meant not leaving him alone in the living room while Pap figured out what to make. He eventually got Red to wrap his arms around his neck, and his legs around his waist. The small skeleton held on securely, likely afraid he was going to fall.

  
Papyrus would not let him fall. It was a little uncomfortable with the little skele’s arms pressing on his neck, but he didn’t mind. He walked into the kitchen and peeked in the fridge. Some leftover tacos, mustard… oh, mustard! He got that out, then pulled out a plate of tacos. He knew Red didn’t absolutely adore tacos, but it was all Paps knew how to heat up without blowing up the kitchen. He popped the tacos into the microwave and fished out some crackers from the cupboard. A tasty snack on the side. He could get out some cheese and put some slices on the crackers- so Red didn’t have to put up with just tacos.

  
Papyrus knew he’d have to wait on Red for a while, but he really didn’t mind. He’d be up to the task. He was relieved that Red had been willing to change collars, that meant he was getting comfortable around Papyrus and Sans. Now hopefully it would be that easy to convince him to stay in this universe. 


	9. Red's first Christmas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I originally wanted to get this out on Christmas day itself, but I ended up falling asleep when I intended to do it. So, it's a little late.
> 
> For those who might not celebrate Christmas, feel free to skip this chapter as it doesn't have really any important story bits.   
> Yes, it's a lot shorter, and yes, it doesn't have Frisk or Chara in it. I just wanted to update and have a holiday themed chapter. The next one will definitely get on the subject of Frisk and Chara's situation and have some more story in it.
> 
>  
> 
> Summary:   
> Red celebrates the holidays man! He gets PRESENTS.

It had been a week since Red decided to change his collar. He’d gotten a lot more comfortable in his environment, but he still constantly had nightmares and more-than-occasional panic attacks. It was very difficult. But now he was starting to notice, that on his frequent little walks with Papyrus, there were strange decorations around the town.

  
‘Why are there lights?’ Red asked one day, staring at the weird spiky tree in the center of the town, which was decorated with strings of lights and other weird baubles. “Hmm? Oh, those are Christmas lights. It’s a Christmas tree. You don’t celebrate the holiday in your universe?” Papyrus said, sounding confused. Red shook his head, ‘No, I’ve never heard of it before.’ He signed, frowning.

  
“Well then we’re going to have an extra special celebration for you on Christmas!” Papyrus said, actually sounding excited. Then he gasped, “That means me and Sans have to work extra hard to get you a good present!” He said, and then picked up Red, pulling them into a shortcut. They appeared at the house, and Paps put Red on the couch. “Stay here, I’m going to be out with Sans for a while, possibly a few hours.”

  
Red nodded in response, even though he didn’t really want to be left alone. He wasn’t gonna ask Papyrus to not leave him alone, because that would be rude. Especially if the tall skele was going to go get him presents… ‘I don’t really need anything, though… you don’t need to get me anything.’ Red signed nervously. He wasn’t used to anyone getting him things. “Nonsense! This will be your first Christmas, we need to make it extra special for you.” Papyrus waved a hand dismissively. “anyways, if you want, I can call someone to stay with you, if you like.” Papyrus said.

  
‘No!’ Red signed vigorously. He did not want to be near anyone else. The only ones he felt even remotely safe around was Papyrus and Sans. “o…kay.” Papyrus sighed and gently patted Red’s head. “well, I’ll try to be fast, okay?” He said, and once he got a nod, he teleported away to Sans.

  
Sans was quickly startled by Papyrus appearing with a loud _pop!_ and jumped possibly a foot in the air. “Papy! Don’t scare me like that!” He squeaked, pouting and sending a half-hearted glare at Papyrus.

  
His brother simply responded by giving him a pat on the head, “Sorry bro, I just needed to get you for some Christmas shopping.” He said, looking down at Blue. “Oh yeah!” Sans said, looking excited. “Red said he’s never celebrated Christmas before.” Papyrus said, frowning. “WHAT?!” Sans shrieked. “NEVER? Oh no! We have to get him a really special present then!” Sans already seemed to be planning what to get. “Let’s get to the mall! Christmas is like, tomorrow!” Sans shrieked at his realization.

  
Papyrus nodded and took his hand, both of them teleporting to the mall. Sans rushed toward the clothing racks, searching for clothes. “We should get him some new clothes! Yes, he doesn’t have very many, so he needs some anyways…!” Sans was rambling on now about what types of clothes, what types of accessories, everything. Papyrus decided to let Blue do the clothes shopping, and wandered off on his own to find something else. He passed a few other monsters before a few thing caught his eye.

  
The first thing he approached was a rack holding large, fluffy blankets. Red would love a blanket like this… he thought to himself, rubbing the fabric between his fingers. It was warm, huge, and fluffy. All the good things a blanket should be. Papyrus tucked it under his arm and moved on. He avoided any more collars or ‘cute’ accessories -such as cat ear headbands and such- and instead walked to one of the game stores. He wondered if there were any good ones, but one look at the collection told him there wasn’t.

  
What would he get for Red? He hardly knew what the other liked -other than a strange affinity for mustard. It was like the undernourished skeleton never had had his own thoughts before, let alone think of an item he’d want. He decided to just leave it as the blanket for now, and if he saw anything else he would get it.

  
That was until he saw a moderately sized stuffed bear, that was about the same size as Red himself. Oh, he _HAD_ to get that. Even if it was a joke gift, it would still be cute to see Red’s reaction. Papyrus grabbed it and headed back to Sans, who already had a decent armful of dark-colored clothing picked out, as well as a large floofy jacket. “He already has a coat, bro.” Papyrus groaned and looked at Sans. “yeah, but he still could use another one!” Sans protested, and Papyrus knew it would be useless to argue.

  
They ended up getting a few more knickknacks and a few things of candy, and only once they started heading to the cash register did they remember the wrapping paper. Papyrus had to run back to get it, and nearly collapsed next to the rack that held the gift wrapping paper, heaving for breath. His chest burned with the exertion, but he still managed to grab the paper and then walk -slower this time- back to Blue.

  
He was still catching his breath as Blue paid for the items, their low amount of money left undaunting, as it was going to be worth it to make Red happy. “Thank you for your purchase.” Said the cashier, thankfully not the one from before.

Papyrus was elected for the unfortunate job of carrying the bags; he was almost falling over from the weight of the bags as he trudged after Blue. “We didn’t even get-“ Papyrus huffed out a heavy breath, “-get that much, why does it weigh so much??” He finally managed to finish, looking at Blue for any assistance. “I don’t know, clothes weigh a lot I guess? You didn’t help by buying half the mall, Papy.”

  
“I did not buy half the mall! You bought the majority of the clothes in there, you’re the one who got half the mall!” Papyrus argued pridefully. He’d never ever get blamed for any such thing! Never! Not in a million years! He was supposed to be the lazy one who never even bothered to wash his hoodie.

  
Well he had a reason for that, if he washed his hoodie it would be ruined in the wash. This hoodie was his precious, he could never part with it. Also he didn’t know how much stuff he would have to take out of his pockets just to put it in the wash anyways. He was pretty sure his pockets were time lord technology or something; bigger on the inside. So, that would just be a lot more work than he ever wanted to do in the next year. If he got Sans to relocate his items then all his stuff would end up in the dump.

  
He could not have that.

  
Sans ended up rambling on about all the things Papyrus needed to clean up at home, all the things he himself would have to do, and more. Papyrus had ended up zoning out for the extent of their walk home.

  
~~

  
Red looked curiously at the pile of presents in the middle of the living room. He didn’t really understand how the two other skeletons could have gotten those all inside of the house let alone wrapped before today. Well, before the day had ended. The two had been locked up in Papyrus’ room wrapping for the whole day, Red having heard a few occasional frustrated shouts. Also, he’d been asleep on the couch when they had come in the day before.

  
Oh, yeah. A cat had managed to sneak into the house and had fallen asleep on Red’s chest. Now Red was only getting a small bit irritated that the cat kept following him around. Even now the little fuzzy face was rubbing it’s cheek against his own cheek bone. He lifted a hand to push the cat away, but then he just ended up giving it a moderate amount of petting. He glided his hand over the soft fur as he looked at the two excited faces of the other skeletons. It surprised Red to see Papyrus so excited about something, because the other always seemed so calm.

  
So Red assumed whatever was in the boxes, must be good. “Cmon Red, you get to open all of yours first.” Sans set, beckoning him toward the pile of presents. Red reluctantly lowered himself to the floor -His injuries were still bothering him quite a bit- and crawled over to them.

  
_I really shouldn’t accept any of this, **Boss will just make me leave it here when I go back.** It’s completely useless to me. Oh, well, if I don’t take them, they will be mad at me. _

  
Red sighed and chose the first one, the smallest one. It was clearly a box, around the size of a microwave. This is the smallest one? God, they’ve gone all out… he tore open the wrapping paper -which was actually sort of fun, being able to rip something and not get in trouble for it- and opened up the box. Clothes! He examined them, happy to find that they were his ‘style’ and he wouldn’t have to pretend to lose them to the dark corners of the closet because they were a weird color. He looked over at Papyrus and Sans and smiled. Then he moved onto another gift, which was in a large box the size of Red himself, and he hesitantly tore open the wrapping. The tape on the side was difficult to get through - well, it would have been if Red’s fingers weren’t filed into claws.

  
He peeked inside of the box and pulled out a stuffed bear. Jesus, this thing was the size of him. He looked with a confused expression at Papyrus and Sans. Papyrus just seemed amused, while Sans was scowling up at Papyrus. “don’t worry if you don’t like it- it was just more of a joke present.” Sans reassured, looking over at Red with a little smile. Red nodded and set the bear next to himself – he would never admit it but he actually loved something to cuddle without worrying about his face being clawed – and moved to the next one.

  
He got through the rest, finding a jacket, a blanket, and a few other little things, including mustard. He wrapped the blanket around his shoulders, and kept the mustard in his hand once he was finished. He looked over at Papyrus and Sans, eyelights wide at all the things he’d gotten. They smiled at him brightly, and he found himself smiling back with the same intensity.

  
He didn’t remember the last time he’d been this happy at all, or grateful to have people like this in his life. Suddenly there were arms around him, both of the other skeletons were hugging him. He was only startled for a few moments before he awkwardly tried to hug them back. ‘Thank you.’ He signed when he pulled away. “No problem, Red! We wanted this Christmas to be extra special for you.” Sans said, and he couldn’t help hugging Red again.

  
Red laughed a little, and hugged back. The scent of blueberries wafted through his senses, and he smiled. It was weird, Sans always seemed to smell like blueberries and Papyrus smelled like honey and cigarette smoke. Red didn’t think he himself had a scent. Did he? He’d have to ask one of the brothers at some time. Maybe Red was just crazy and was smelling things for no reason. That would have been the most logical option.

  
Sans finally let go, and Red was feeling a little drowsy. He felt a strain in the magic of his eyelights, and that urge to just curl up and sleep. He moved back onto the couch, wrapping his new blanket and the other blankets he had around himself so he was feeling warm. The weird cat ended up working it’s way under the blankets and onto his lap, and started purring. That and the darkness outside made him want to sleep even more.

  
He tried desperately to cling to the remaining energy he had to stay awake, but he was unable to. After what felt like a few minutes -but was really an hour- had passed, he was awoken by something pressing to the top of his skull. He looked up and saw Papyrus walking away, still being half asleep. Red could have guessed that the motion Papyrus had done had been some form of skeleton-kiss, but he was really too out of it to figure that out.

  
Instead he just burrowed deeper into his blankets, curling around the cat in his lap and fell asleep once more.


	10. Saving the Underground With Frisk and Co.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm really sorry I haven't gotten any chapters out guys, so take this! It's very short, it doesn't have any Red and Papyru in it, so my deepest apologies.   
> I just wanted to get something out, and this was all I had. It has a rather abrupt ending but all my inspiration just sort of quit on me. I promise I'll try to get more out in time.   
> It's just been really hard because I've been sick for probably an entire week, and distracted.

*A week earlier*   
Frisk bit into her cinnamon bun, feeling a little uneasy. Eating with someone who she would, inevitably, cause the death of. She felt her hands starting to tremble, and immediately stopped that, frowning slightly. She already agreed, she would not back down now. What chilled her was that Flower was actually willing to die, had been planning how she would die from the very start. It was… unnerving. Frisk could only wonder what drove Flower to even think that, the other human would not offer any elaboration on the fact.

  
Flowey sat on Frisk’s shoulder, he seemed to be having the same thought processes as Frisk.

  
What bothered Frisk even more, was Rose. It seemed that the former ghost constantly was trying to annoy Frisk. The latter had no idea why, it was lost to her what reason would be behind bothering her. But unfortunately, the underswap pair seemed intent on keeping any information a secret. And now Frisk found herself eating as slow as possible to postpone the inevitable. But now the others were finishing and staring at Frisk. She finished off her food with small, quick bites and looked away.

  
Flower let out a small sigh, and walked to the door. “let’s do this.” She said quietly, and opened the door, which made a quiet but bone-chilling squeal.

  
*present day*

  
Frisk woke with a jolt and a yelp, looking around wildly until she realized where she was. She jolted again when a hand rested on her shoulder, and looked over at Chara, who seemed worried.

  
Frisk had no idea why… killing Flower had affected her so much. Sure, Frisk had done a neutral run before in her own universe, but something about killing a human -or killing an alternate version of Chara- had affected her greatly. Even if Flowey had been the one making the killing blow. So now she found herself hugging Chara tightly, burying her face in the other’s shoulder.

  
It was great -and less unnerving- to be finally able to hug Chara for real, actually feel the warmth and a pulse, and everything else. Frisk was glad that Chara was alive and had a soul. But Frisk was still trying to battle the ever-present guilt from their little… agreement.

  
What the others didn’t know, what worried Frisk in a great way, was that her LV went up when she watched Flower die. Frisk hadn’t even done a single attack, she didn’t know how that had happened! Even if it was just one LV, it was still horrible. Her thoughts were definitely a little darker, and she was starting to be more accepting of the fact they might have to kill a monster to get through to the surface. Frisk was starting to wonder though, humans didn’t really have to die to give up their soul to cross the barrier, so why did Flower plan on dying?

  
Or was Frisk simply terribly wrong with her information? She didn’t know, didn’t understand, but she had made a promise. There was absolutely no way she would break it. If she couldn’t offer her soul to break the barrier, then she would probably end up kidnapping a monster -kid- and going through to unfortunately cause the death of more humans… unless Frisk could find the souls of dying humans, like at a hospital… that was the best idea.

  
Suddenly she was cut off from her thoughts by a loud cough from the direction of the other bed. Rose caught her gaze with a grin. “We gonna get going?” she asked, pointing to the door. They’d gotten a room at the Snowed Inn, and were planning on moving on that day. Frisk patted Chara’s head – she was still hugging her tightly in an attempt to comfort. “S-Sure…” Frisk said while Chara let go, and stretched.

  
There was a cold feeling when Chara had let go, but Frisk didn’t comment. She knew they had to get going, no matter how… nice… that felt.

  
Rose strolled over to Chara and put her arm around her shoulder. “Hey Chara, you wanna help me wake up Flowey?” she asked the other with a wide grin.   
Flowey had been more than a little nervous after Chara had gotten a soul, but he also seemed more happy. Though it was like he was waiting for a bomb to suddenly go off, he was so jumpy at nearly every moment. So of course, Chara and Rose had a fun time scaring him as much was possible.

  
Really it was Frisk’s fault that they hadn’t left for an entire week. Well, partially her fault. During the holiday days, it just felt better to stay in Snowdin and be in a cheerful place for a while. The other part was before Christmas, the snow storms had picked up and there had been no leaving for several days. Now the weather was nicer, and they needed to get out before anything else got in the way. Frisk beat Rose and Chara to the duty of waking up Flowey, and gently poked a few of his petals to wake him.

  
Flowey immediately woke up, seeming thankful that for once he didn’t wake up in panic and terror. Frisk smiled at him and picked him up, letting him curl his roots around her shoulder. “Come on, let’s go.” She said, and then headed out of the room. Footsteps were audible behind her as she walked out of the Inn, and into the frigid air. Flowey still hadn’t agreed to a scarf yet (but frisk was still planning on getting him one) so he was shivering as soon as they exited the building.

 

And so they marched off, heading to New Home so they could find a way to the surface, and to open up the underground like a can of mystery food that has been sitting in the back of a shelf for ten years without a label. 


	11. Blinded

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Haha, erratic updates my ass. More like very occasional. Annual. Monthly, no. Sorry guys for the lack of updates, but here's one that I've been mulling over in my head about. 
> 
> Summary:  
> Red wakes up from a nightmare, and tries to find a source of comfort from his friend/senpai. But... it doesn't really help that both of them have issues with nightmares.

Red very suddenly jolted awake, eyelights blazing. It was still a strange feeling to actually wake up and feel that he was able to use magic. He took a deep breath to calm himself, and despite the many blankets covering him, he felt cold.

Only after a few minutes did he feel any motivation to get up. He walked to the kitchen, the cold tile floor anchoring him to reality. He couldn’t even remember what his nightmare had been about, though it was still bothering him. He grabbed a cup he could vaguely hope was clean off the counter, and ran the kitchen sink water until it was cold.

He ended up downing a glass and a half of water.

Red still felt a little spooked, but he didn’t really know what to do about that. He went back to the couch and curled up, attempting to get back to sleep. Eventually he gave up, and got up again. He wrapped his favorite around his shoulders and walked toward the stairs. Normally he wouldn’t even think of bothering either of the brothers in their sleep, but he was pretty sure he could probably just crawl into Papyrus’ bed without waking him… it’s not like he had a voice to use that could wake him up.

Red winced when he stepped on one of the stairs, a painfully loud creaking noise following. He then stepped off, and skipped that step as best he could. After what felt like a year he finally reached papyrus’ door without managing to trigger some other deafening sound. He lifted his hand slowly and turned the knob, peeking into the room. It was too dark to see really anything, except for the calming orange glow that Red could place as Papyrus’ soul shining through his shirt.

Red followed the light and stopped when he almost tripped on the bed and almost sprawled on top of Papyrus. And that would be the exact opposite of what he wanted. As he paused and judged how exactly to crawl onto the bed without waking Papyrus, his soul dropped when he saw the tall skeleton stirring. “Red?” the tired voice came, and Red winced.

He didn’t really have any other way to respond, so he just gave a vague grunt that told Papyrus he was there. He was asked if he had been having trouble sleeping, and replied with the same kind of sound. He could see Papyrus’ outline faintly as his eyes adjusted to the darkness, and saw he was being beckoned. Not so reluctantly, he crawled onto the bed and settled himself into papyrus’s arms. To his surprise, he actually did manage to fall asleep…

**

_Red was in the forest. He didn’t question how he got there, he only registered the frantic urge to get back to… somewhere. His mind drew a blank when he tried to think of a safe place. Dazed and confused, he started wandering in a random direction. Any direction would take him to a place where he knew how to navigate from, since he was in the forest. One way led to the path to Snowdin, one led to Snowdin itself, one to the river, and one to the sheer wall that blocked the Ruins from the rest of the underground._

_But as he walked for what felt like hours, he found there was no progress. Every tree looked the same. The only different thing that happened was he approached a strange… rift? The scientific part of his mind identified the cold-one-minute, warm-the-next feeling as a rift. Which meant there was a portal to some other universe right next to him. He took several steps back, his soul lurching with the thought of his brother being able to come through any moment and catch him, bringing him back to…. Home? No, Underfell wasn’t home any more. It was a terrifying place that he hated with all his power._

_There was the sound of crunching snow somewhere within his hearing range. He turned to spot his brother, who looked at emotionless as always. “Ah, there you are, my little pet. I’ve been looking for you everywhere.” Came the voice, the voice he had learned to dread._

_Red found himself frozen as he was approached, and the tall skeleton kneeled down and rested a clawed hand on the side of his face. He had a feeling of hope lighting in his soul at the surprisingly gentle touch. Maybe his brother had decided to change, even a little?_

_His hope was crushed as the next moment his back was slammed into a tree, and there was the same gloved hand closing around his neck and pinning him there. “You stupid mutt, you think you could get away from me that easily?”_

_**_

It was almost a relief to Red to wake up, but he was met with a similarly panic-worthy situation. The image of his brother was gone, but now there was a new hand closed around his neck. Through the growing black spots in his vision, he could see a burning orange eyelight. In the back of his mind he registered that Papyrus was probably in a sort of panic attack as well, spurred on by a nightmare.

But the main thought was that he was going to die, by the hands of someone he trusted. _Trust… such a flimsy word anyways. I don’t deserve to be able to trust anyone anyways. Trust is just weakness._ Red was on the edge of passing out when the pressure finally released him, and he gasped for breath. 

“Oh god, Red, Red, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to- wake up!” He could hear papyrus saying, but he was lost in some sort of trance. He didn’t know whether he was still conscious or not, everything was black and all he could feel was a growing panic. Now he could register something wrapping around him, and he instantly felt trapped. He let out a sort of choked noise, and a few moments later the arms around him weren’t there any more.

There was a voice offering gentle assurances, but that specific voice was currently blocked out of his mind. He felt his soul stuttering with his panic.

A new voice was heard then, offering more assurances. This one seemed to make Red feel a little calmer. He calmed down eventually, enough that when a substantially smaller pair of arms wrapped around him, he didn’t feel panicked. Instead, he felt calmer. There was magic being offered to his soul, a calming feeling coming from the one hugging him. Red stopped crying now, but he still was trembling. He hiccupped and snuggled into Sans’ arms.

Papyrus was just standing by, fidgeting slightly. He didn’t know what to do, he wanted to comfort the small skeleton, but when he had tried he made it worse. Now Red seemed calm, but there was still hesitation…

Red just leaned back against Sans, his vision had gone black again. He guessed it was just because of the sudden intrusion of Sans’ magic to his soul, but thankfully that had been to calm him, not hurt him. He listened to Sans’ breathing and slowed his own.

He turned his head in the direction he could sense Papyrus was, and gave a near-desperate expression. That had Papyrus crawling back onto the bed next to him, and another pair of arms wrapped around Red gently. “I’m so, so sorry Red.” Papyrus repeated from before, running a hand over the small skeleton’s skull. Red responded by curling his fingers into the fabric of Papyrus’ shirt and pressing his face to the cloth.  This evoked a heavy sigh, but Papyrus wouldn’t want to repeat himself any more.


	12. One's Monster's Trash is Another One's.... Danger?!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here we take a little break from Red's perspective and get to see a little bit of Blue. But not everything is going to go perfectly ok. Boss has been up to something back in Underfell, and Blue is going to find out what soon enough.
> 
> CHAPTER WARNING: Attempted rape, slight gore/violence.
> 
> \---
> 
> Yes, it's a whole chapter of just Blue.
> 
> Nicknames that will be used in this story/in later chapters:  
> Underswap Papyrus: Stretch, Papyrus  
> Underswap Sans: Blue, Sans  
> Underfell Sans: Red  
> Underfell Papyrus: Boss, Tol Scary edgelord, and (maybe later) Fell.

Sans was calmly walking on his patrol into waterfall, planning on stopping by Alphys’ house. He’d called her beforehand to make sure she’d be there, so he was trying to speed up his walking to get there on time. He was thinking about anything he might want to get Red. He was planning on checking in the garbage dump for anything that might be interesting. Sure, he didn’t approve of the general filth of the area, but sometimes it had some cool items there! Half of his collection of movies was found in the dump.

He reached the sort of hall that led to Alphys’ house, and skipped up to her door happily. He took a disc case out of his pocket, and handed it to the yellow dinosaur when she opened up the door. “Here’s your anime back Alph, it was really great!” Sans said happily, and looked at her. She grinned, and pulled him into a noogie. “Nooo! Please don’t noogie the skeleton!” he shouted, and managed to pull away, rubbing his head.

“Alright punk, but I’ll only stop doing that when you stop being so adorable.” Alphys gave a toothy grin, holding the anime case.

“I am not adorable! I am Magnificent!” Sans shouted, taking up his heroic pose and his cape magically waving in the wind. This, unfortunately, only got him another noogie. This time, when he pulled away, he changed the subject. “You got any more anime for me to watch, Alphy?” He asked, tilting his head curiously.

“Sure, kid, just let me go look for one you haven’t seen.” Alphys nodded and disappeared back inside. Sans could hear a shuffling sound and the clatter of a bunch of movie cases falling to the ground. He giggled slightly, and smiled when she reappeared in the doorway, handing him a case. “here you go, the only one left in the unrestricted section.”

Sans took the case and smiled. Alphys had made a section of anime that Sans wasn’t allowed to watch. The reason why escaped him, but he didn’t really mind. As long as he had some that he WAS allowed to watch, he was happy. He tucked the new case into his pocket -it was a little weird how it even fit- and did a small salute. “Gotta go, captain! I’ll be off!” he jumped forward and hugged Alphys, then turned and walked away.

“Stay safe punk!” Alphys called after him, waving.

“Will do Alphy!” Sans called back and started toward the path that led to the dump. Today was a good day. Even Red and Papyrus had woken up today seeming happy, considering the events of the previous night. The only thing Sans was worried about was that… if he got a present for Red for the night before, would that be kind of like a dog treat?

He was trying desperately to make it not seem like Red was their pet, but it was just so painfully hard to make it not seem like that. They took him on walks, they gave him a new collar, would giving him a present like this make it seem like that anymore?

Sans was sure he was just over thinking things. Oh well, he would just try to make Red feel like an actual person and not a pet. He was glad, at least, to see Red is comfortable around Papyrus and Sans himself. It somewhat hurt that Red trusted Papyrus more, but Sans didn’t let it get to him too much.

Lost in his thoughts, Sans just calmly strolled into the dump. As soon as he felt his boots step into shallow water, he was torn out of his thoughts. He walked up to a garbage pile, and searched through the topmost items. Nothing that seemed too interesting. He was immersed in his task, too much so to notice the slight whirring sound that started up, almost inaudible. He stepped away from the pile, and then turned to keep walking further into the dump.

When he took several steps forward, he felt a sudden shift and was overtake by a wave of nausea. He felt a chill run down his spine and lurched forward, falling to his knees. He retched, but being a skeleton, he wasn’t able to produce any bile or anything to actually throw up.

He had to breathe deeply for a few seconds before he felt like he was finally able to move. He planted a hand on something he at least thought was stable to help himself up- but the junk shifted, and he was back in the murky water below him. When he finally managed to stand, he saw cyan blood bubbling up from a thin cut across his ‘palm’. He stared at the cut for a few minutes before glancing around to find some sort of cloth to use as a makeshift bandage. Nothing…

It took a few minutes for him to realize his surroundings were a lot darker than before. Was there something wrong with the place? Usually there was some light… but it was almost pitch black now. He sniffed the air, taking in the rank scent of blood and dust that seemed to fill the air. Oh stars, what happened? How could so much change within just a few seconds? He looked down, the inch deep water was a reddish brown, murky color. “What….?” He muttered under his breath and took a small step backward, but his back hit something… soft. Well, it definitely was another monster.

Sans tried to turn, but then his shoulders were seized and he was spun around, then immediately pinned against the cave wall. An ugly, snarling, sharp-fanged muzzle was shoved close to his face. “heh, I can get a good amount of gold for you, now that I think about it. Such clean, unmarred bones you have..” The wolf monster purred, wrapping a hand around his neck. “Or maybe I could just take you right now before anyone else gets to have fun with you…” Sans felt a hand trailing down his sternum, felt the sharp claws through the thin fabric of his shirt.

He was trembling, and he was terrified. What was going on?? “P…Please, j-just let me g-go and w-we can ag-agree to something…?” He tried quietly, eyelights shrinking to tiny pinpricks. What were they planning to do? He didn’t understand what they were saying.

“No way, little one. You’re mine, now.” The monster snarled, and Sans felt their hand dip under the waistband of his shorts, teasing at his pelvis and coaxing small wisps of cyan magic to form. No! This… it felt so wrong. Sans started squirming violently, and let out a loud choked scream- the sound caught halfway by the hand tightening around his neck further. “Looks like you’ll need a little lesson, kid.” Then claws were digging into his pelvic bones. This was the kind of pain sans was more used to… from attacks. He kicked out, catching the monster in the stomach.

The monster staggered backward, but didn’t release him. “Alright, maybe you need a few broken bones to show you not to do that.” The monster growled even deeper now, grabbing his wrist and closing their hand down, causing very small cracking noises to fill the air.

Sans was starting to black out from all the pain. Another scream filled the air, but Sans felt so detached from reality that he couldn’t determine whether it was his own scream or not. And then suddenly the pressure on his hand stopped. He fell to the ground, staring blankly at the new pile of dust that was starting to be washed away by the water already. He vaguely registered another monster there, and for a second he thought it was Papyrus.

His vision was blurred, and the new skeleton’s face shape was like Papy’s, but as his sight adjusted he knew immediately it wasn’t. The features were too sharp, the clothing too dark.

“Hm. I got here late. I should have just took a ride from the river person…” The tall skeleton grumbled, reaching down to pick up Sans… who promptly squeaked and moved away.

“S-Stay away! I don’t want to go with you either!” Sans said in what he hoped was a threatening tone. Unfortunately it did not seem like it because the dark monster still picked him up and slung the small skeleton over his shoulder like he weighed nothing.  The pain and the fear had pulled Sans back to reality and he felt a rush of adrenaline, but he wasn’t able to escape. His legs were being held still and trying to pound his fists down on his captor’s back didn’t seem to affect him at all.

Soon he just gave up, too mentally and physically exhausted already to do anything effective anyways.

After what seemed like hours, but was just thirty minutes, they finally seemed to reach their destination. The next thing Sans registered was being dumped on a couch, head spinning. The scent of dust and blood outside was nauseating, he felt dizzy just taking one breath. He didn’t even have to breath, but he couldn’t help it; breathing was one of his habits. It made him look a little friendlier. He didn’t think he would like walking up to someone who wasn’t breathing- it would just give the person an air of creepiness.

He was distracted from his thoughts by seeing his tall, dark captor standing in front of him with eyelights burning red. “Why don’t you start by telling me who the hell you are.” He growled, glaring down at the dazed small skeleton.

“I-I’m Sans.” Replied Sans, who didn’t think he was really capable of saying prolonged sentences.

“This is obvious. I mean, why are you here? More importantly, where the hell is Red?” Came the snarl of a reply, causing Sans to flinch. Where even was he? A glance around at his surroundings showed a beat-up, messy version of his own home. Sans shifted his position- which showed to be a bad idea, as his pelvis was still injured and probably bleeding through his shorts. Ah, he was going to have to clean his clothes soon.

His attention was snapped back to the current conversation when his head snapped to the side, white hot pain burning through his cheek. Oh, he was slapped. The nerve of some people! He ought to just slap this clone of his brother right back! But the thing holding him back was that he’d probably just be hurt more. An idea popped into his head.

“If you hurt me, Papy definitely won’t want to give Red back… He’ll be really mad.” Sans said slowly, thoughts still having a little trouble. What had even happened? He didn’t recall getting hit in the head… well not enough to get his thought process impeded.

The scary Papyrus seemed to mull over this in his head for a while, then finally sighed and crossed his arms. “fine. And you will address me at Boss, got it? If you call me anything else I will personally crush your soul.”

“Aye aye, captain! I mean- Boss.” Sans smiled a little at the annoyed look he got.

“You’re worse than S-… Red. He used to always say stupid shit like that and make jokes.” Boss said, but Sans saw something in those red eyelights that dimmed when the word ‘used to’ was used.

Sans was curious, but he didn’t say anything about it. He shifted his position again, and winced. “Ow…” He muttered, and then tried to move his hand. That was a big mistake. Blinding pain shot through his arm and he nearly screamed, making his hand go still again. His vision was blurry again with what he realized were tears. When he was paying attention to his surroundings again he saw that Boss had disappeared.

Then, he appeared again, with a roll of bandages and something that looked somewhat like a cast. Boss knelt down on the ground in front of Sans, even kneeling he was taller.

Sans shrank back involuntarily, slightly scared. There was a fierce glare on the others’ face, though he somehow knew it wasn’t directed at him.

Boss carefully took his limp hand into his large palm and looked over the injury. There were several small fractures but they would heal. He summoned his magic, hovering his free hand over the small wrist so the green magic flowed into the injury. He wouldn’t be able to heal the entire thing, but it would at least make it so Sans experienced less pain and some of the fractures would go away.

~~

Boss grumbled quietly as he finished the healing he could do for the broken bones. He didn’t even know why he was healing this little demon. Maybe he just felt like he had some making up to do, and he couldn’t make up anything to Red right now. So he would just have to settle to his brother’s tiny alternate. Even Red had thicker bones than this little skeleton, who seemed so frail that he was afraid to even touch him.

He shook his head to clear his thoughts and scanned the rest of the other’s appearance. There seemed to be blood stains seeping through his shorts, and there was blood dripping from the other hand, the one Boss didn’t heal. Boss focused his attention on the other hand, deciding to heal the other injuries… later.

“You’re lucky that monster didn’t hurt you worse, with what they seemed to be planning with you…” Boss said, growling. If it had been Red being hurt, Boss would have probably done much worse to the monster. No one touches his property. Killing the monster quickly was too merciful. But, this Sans was indeed somewhat like Red, at least in appearance. Both were short as hell, and both were generally frail and small. Both were weak as hell.

In his head, Boss decided to call the small skeleton Blue, just so things weren’t too confusing. He still mentally registered the name ‘Sans’ with his brother.

Blue coughed a little and shifted again. Another wince. Boss sighed, he’d have to take care of whatever injuries Blue had under his clothing. This was.. unfortunate. Boss was running a little low on magic even after two hands were taken care of.

“What… what did they have planned for me?” Blue tilted his head, seeming confused. “I don’t understand what they were trying to do…” The small skeleton’s voice trailed to a whisper and Boss saw tears welling up in those large eyesockets.

He sighed, and sat back after fully healing Blue’s cut on his hand. So that’s why Blue seemed so… confused. He didn’t even know. Gaster had made damn well sure that Red and Boss new about those things, even at the young age they had been with the scientist.

Boss didn’t think he was ready to have this conversation with an alternate of his brother, who looked almost childish despite probably being around 20 years old. Whatever.

“I’m afraid I am not the one who needs to have this chat with you.” Boss snapped and looked over Blue. There was the remaining blood stains, and Boss leaned forward to pull the clothing off. This caused Blue to violently jerk away and squeak.

“Wh-What are you d-doing?” Blue’s face was covered in a intense cyan blush.

Boss didn’t really draw any sense from the reaction. “I need to heal you.” He said, in a tone that just screamed ‘isn’t it obvious?’. Then, he finally seemed to get what was wrong. “It’s not like I haven’t seen it all, I am Red’s brother by the way. You are basically the same person.” He said impatiently. He needed to get going, he still had some work to do.

“N-No! Yo-You can’t just…” Blue gritted his teeth together for a second and then finally spoke again, “I’ll be able to deal with it. Don’t you have healing items somewhere?” he asked, quieter now.

Boss sighed and stood up. He left for a moment, and returned with a bottle of what looked like ointment. It was the healing item-magic equivalent of anti-infection cream. Except this would help the wound heal. “Fine, but I have to leave. Do what you wish, just do not go into any of the bedrooms.” Boss told him sternly, already going over all the spots he had to patrol in his head.

“A-Alright… wait!” Blue squeaked as Boss turned to leave. “Y-You’re just leaving?” he asked in a painfully weak-sounding voice.

“yeah. That’s kind of what a job requires.” Boss replied calmly.

“But- I-….” Blue seemed to give up, and sighed. “Is there anywhere I can sleep other than the couch?” he asked. His question was met with Boss pointing to a dog bed in the corner of the room that Blue hadn’t noticed when entering. “What?! I’m not sleeping on a dog bed!” He said in a slightly furious voice. Boss just shrugged and left, closing and locking the front door behind him.

Blue was left feeling more than a little lonely, wondering what his brother would be thinking by now. Where could the little innocent skeleton have gone? Oh, you know, just into a living hell.

Blue got up, grabbing the container of ointment and heading up the stairs and to the bathroom. He knew he was alone in the house, but he still didn’t feel very safe taking off his clothing out in the larger room. What if Boss came back when he was trying to put it on? That would be so embarrassing. He couldn’t. Just, couldn’t.

He knew he should be furious at Boss for the obvious torture he had done to Red, but he just wasn’t really feeling up to the drama. He’d confront Boss later, for now he just wanted to sort things out.


	13. Fear and Frustration

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Red and Stretch are frantic as they find out Blue has gone missing. Blue attempts to get through to Boss but the end result is less than desirable.
> 
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> 
> Apologies for inconsistencies, this was written in several separate days as I battled with writer's block. If there is any inconsistencies spotted, it would greatly help for a reminder and I will fix it!

When Red woke up, all he heard was the frantic footsteps of Papyrus. This got him into a slightly panicked mindset as well as he sat up. At least his sight had cleared up and he could actually see, now. He watched Papyrus come into the living room, then leave seconds later, heading to the kitchen. This process repeated with every single room in the house, and then another time over as well. Once Papyrus must have checked every room at least four times, Red was getting tired of guessing what was going on.

He tried to get the taller skeleton’s attention. He really did. Without the ability to talk, or shout, or anything, he pretty much failed. He eventually grabbed a pillow and threw it at Papyrus when he had returned to the living room for the fifth time. It hit Papyrus in the face.

Red immediately regretted that decision, and pressed his back to the couch he was sat on, starting to tremble as he expected the worst-

Which never came. Papyrus just sighed and sat down next to Red, pulling the small skeleton onto his lap. This helped ease Red’s trembling, but Red could hear the panicked thrumming of the other’s soul through the fabric of the orange hoodie.

Red lifted his head and looked up at Papyrus worriedly. **‘what’s wrong?’** He signed, tilting his head curiously. _What could be the worst thing causing him to act like this? **Maybe he’ll send me back… I don’t think that would be causing him to act so worried though.** It’s not like I’d deserve anyone to be worried about me. _

Papyrus gently put his hand on top of Red’s skull, and took a deep breath to calm himself. “Sans hasn’t come back in… well, it’s taken him way too long to get home. Alphys says she hasn’t seen him since he came by her house yesterday.” He said slowly, sighing.

**‘We should look for him, then.’** Red signed nervously, hoping that was a good enough answer. “yes, I know. I should go…” Papyrus waited until Red crawled off of his lap to get up. There was something to his voice though, he was hiding something. **‘…What… else, is there?’** Red signed, but papyrus wasn’t looking. The tall skeleton had walked toward the door. He paused, looking back at Red. “I need to go. Come here, I’m taking you to the lab.” Papyrus ordered, and Red quickly got up to obey.

Many things ran through Red’s head as he tried to figure out what could have happened to Sans. His most worrying thought was that Boss had come back, and killed Sans. _Oh, god, it’s all my fault. He could be dead, and it’s all my fault, I should have run away, or something…. I’ve been such an idiot, Boss is coming to take me back, he’s going to kill me for real this time…!_

Red started to panic before he even realized it. Quickly, he took several deep, steadying breaths. He latched himself onto Papyrus’s arm and waited for them to teleport.

The air was filled with a whirring sound, and Red had a small bout of dizziness, but it soon went away. He watched Papyrus let go of him and teleport away. Undyne was speedily walking to meet him, and stopped several feet away. “H-hello, Red. If you’ll just follow me, I’ll sh-show you where you can stay for n-now.” She stammered, gesturing in the direction of an escalator that was ever moving upward. He nodded nervously and followed her. Despite her striking resemblance to the terrifying guard captain from his own universe, he found Undyne rather calming to be around. Perhaps it was because she seemed so nervous as well, and he could more easily relate to her.

Still, he stayed cautious and on edge around her. She hadn’t done anything to hurt him so far, but he didn’t want to let his guard down so soon. He followed her up the escalator -which honestly made him dizzy for a few seconds after stepping onto it- and to the corner where she had a couch set up. He sat down on it and looked up at Undyne. She smiled reassuringly at him and turned to go to her desk, looking down at it. She sat down in the swivel chair and turned to face Red.

“S-So, I’m guessing y-you heard Sans dis-disappeared.” Undyne started, looking at him and making sure nothing she did bothered him too much.

Red nodded, lifting his hands to sign back. **‘Yes. Do you know what happened to him?’** He signed the question quickly. **‘What do you think happened?’** He followed with the more urgent question that was on his mind.

“W-Well, he’d gone to the dump yesterday, th-that’s the last place a-anyone saw him.” Undyne replied. “A-Around the same t-time, my computer g-got an alert about a d-disturbance in the same a-area. A p-portal opened up. I-It wasn’t a natural occurrence, b-but sometimes those happen. I-It was an in-intentional thing. S-Someone from a different universe p-purposefully opened up a p-portal to here.” She seemed to finish, glancing away.

It felt like Red’s worst fears were piecing together.

_Oh god, Boss is coming to find me, he’s found me. I should have left Sans and Papyrus alone, now they’re going to get hurt! **Boss is finally coming to get me! I knew he loved me, he’s going to get me back. I can convince him not to hurt Sans, everything will be fine. I can go back with him, and Sans and Paps won’t have to worry about me.**_ Red’s thoughts favored a positive attitude for now. But… _What if Sans is already hurt? What if he’s dead?!_

Undyne seemed to sense his panic, and quickly grasped at some sort of reassurance, “B-But I’m sure he w-will be fine, even if th-they took him for a r-reason, it likely w-wouldn’t be to kill him.”

Even with the reassurance, Red felt a rising panic. His breathing hitched, his soul pulsed faster, and he felt tears welling in his eyesockets. He felt himself starting tremble, remembering the events that happened before he had been sent to this universe. He remembered all the dreams he had since then. The ever growing dread knowing Boss would come back to get him returned with full force.

The next thing outside of his own thoughts that he registered was a blanket being put around him. An itchy, thin blanket. But it helped as an anchor for his thoughts. Wasn’t that just how life was; You get faced with horrible things, and then you just feel itchy all over.

He sighed and pulled the blanket over his head, peeking out at Undyne and watching her turn to her desk, writing something down in a notebook. He felt safe in his little tent. It was like he had a blockade from the rest of the world, but he could still see through it and make sure nothing bad was coming.

He stayed like that for a while, until he slowly started falling asleep.

\--

Papyrus walked down the narrow pathway that led to the dump. As soon as his shoes met shallow water, his senses were on high alert. At his side was a Lesser Dog, the only royal guard that they could spare. He walked farther into the ‘room’, and saw some discolored water. He approached the spot. There was dust floating in the water, but it wasn’t nearly enough to be from a whole monster. It also looked old, at least by a few days.

He felt relieved, but also all the more anxious. That was clearly the place the portal had opened up. Some blood and dust had drifted through. While he was reassured that it wasn’t his brothers’ dust, it still told him a few facts about the universe that had been connected to this one at that point.

One, the universe is dangerous, if there was enough dust to drift through.

Two, Sans was stuck there.

Three, it was most likely the universe Red came from. Therefore, there was probably a psychotic copy of Papyrus coming to kill them.

That last one rivaled the worry sprouting from the second one. Papyrus knew he could defend himself and Red against whatever evil version there was of him from a different universe, but if Sans was stuck there, then he could have been kidnapped by Red’s brother. And that meant he had something he could use against Papyrus.

Papyrus knew Red would be likely to hand himself over, but he also knew Sans would tell him not to do it. A Sans for a Sans. What kind of messed up crap was he getting himself into. He just wished that he could have both of them within his grasp right at that moment. Perhaps hoping for a calm movie night, popcorn, anything like that.

But of course, something ended up messing that up.

He sighed as he studied the rest of the area. Nothing else useful, really. Nothing telling him anything. After at least an hour of retracing all of his steps, he decided to go back to Red. He turned and walked out of the dump area. Glad to get out of the watery area; his shoes were all squishy and soggy. Shudder, shudder.

\--

Blue was frustrated. He’d long since let his brother give up on cleaning, ever since he broke the washer, and they’d had to get it fixed by Undyne. This house, however, was completely filthy. It was almost like Boss has completely given up on the house…

Blue felt a pit in his unformed stomach when he realized. He knew what he’d feel like if he’d lost his brother. Boss had probably been devastated when Red had left. In his own, emotionless, angry way. So, the small skeleton decided that he would at least help a little with getting the house to look better. He looked through the cupboard under the kitchen sink, grabbing some cleaning supplies.

He started on the kitchen. After an hour he had it nearly spotless. Now he just needed to clean some of the mold-like residue out of the cupboards closer to the floor. He ducked inside and -avoiding using his injured hand- had cleaned about half of it when he heard something. After a few seconds of not hearing anything else he just went back to working, guessing it was a sound from outside the house.

What he didn’t expect though, was the knock so very close to him, sounding like it was on the surface of the counter. He jumped, and accidentally smacked his head on the cupboard doorway.

Blue yelped, and dropped his cleaning stuff to cradle his head in his hands. Which was a mistake on multiple fronts. His broken hand had a searing pain shoot through it, and he whimpered, clenching his jaw and avoiding making any more sounds. Firm hands grasped his shoulders and dragged him out of the cupboard. He was trying not to let the tears well up in his eyesockets as he looked up at Boss.

Who, honestly, looked a little pissed. “What the hell were you doing?” He growled, narrowing his eyes.

Blue didn’t feel able to speak at the moment. He took a deep breath and opened his mouth to speak, stammering, “I-I wa-was just t-trying to clean…” He mumbled, looking away. It was technically supposed to be a surprise, but that hadn’t really happened. He didn’t expect Boss to come home so early.

“Hmph.” Boss huffed and picked up Blue carefully. He ended up balancing the smaller skeleton on his hip like a child or toddler.

“H-Hey!” Blue huffed, using his good hand to try to push away. “D-Don’t do that! I’m not a child!”

“You look like one.” Boss smirked and turned to head toward the living room.

Blue’s expression flickered between anger and embarrassment. He puffed out his cheeks and scowled at Boss, likely looking even more childish. Luckily he was set on the couch a few moments later. “I do not look like a child!” He protested finally, glaring up at Boss.

“Whatever you say. Now, give me your hand.” Boss held his hand out. Blue guessed he meant his still partially injured hand, and held it out. Boss grabbed his wrist and started healing it, the jolt causing a slight wince from the small skeleton.

Thankfully it didn’t take too long. And plus, the injuries on his pelvis hurt a lot less now after he put the healing cream on it. Blue pulled away his hand when it was fully healed, and flexed his hand. Just like new. Despite his previous irritation directed at Boss, he reached forward and wrapped his arms around the crouched tall skeleton.

Boss stiffened up, in a bit of an odd position, but he tried not to move much. He didn’t want to scare the tiny skeleton into getting hurt again. That wouldn’t be very good. There would be no way of getting his brother back if he hurt the brother of Red’s captor. At least he could blame the current injuries on another monster. After a few seconds he pulled away, grabbing Blue’s arms and pushing them away.

“Thank you for healing me!” Blue said, expression changing to a cheerful one.

“Hmph. Well I can’t exactly trade you back to your brother injured, can I?” Boss grumbled and stood up straight, crossing his arms.

“What do you mean, ‘trade’?” Blue asked, frowning a little.

“I’m going to give you back to our brother in exchange for my pet.” Boss growled, looking at Blue. “He belongs with me.”

Blue looked angry now. “No! He’ll never do it. You’re not getting Red back, whatsoever. We saw what you did to him, and that’s not right! You have no right to just hurt someone like—” He was cut off by a bone attack flashing by his head, and he dodged it. He looked up at Boss, who looked very angry now.

“You do not tell me how to treat my own brother! _You_ have no right to tell me what my rights are. If you have a problem with my plans, you can _leave_ , and I will get my brother back through sheer force. I don’t care _who_ I have to dust to do it!” Boss shouted, just barely holding back his magic from dusting this skeleton in front of him right there and then.

Blue ducked his head at the harsh tone, glaring at the floor instead of at Boss. He couldn’t leave for multiple reasons. If he left the house, he’d probably get killed by some insane monster of this universe. And if he died, then he wouldn’t be able to get back home, and then Boss would probably kill his brother. Blue knew Papyrus was very strong and skilled, but Boss was someone who killed for his job, wasn’t he… he just radiated rage and anger and a type of feeling that only surrounded a monster with LV.

Boss sighed heavily and turned away, he was about to speak when Blue lifted his head with a mischievous glint in his eyelights.

“You really _do_ care about Red, even if you won’t admit it.” Blue said with a smug tone. What a sheer change in attitude.

“What?! No, I don’t. I just don’t want you or your brother getting your grubby little phalanges all over him. If you change his treatment then he’ll never learn to act like a good pet.” Boss muttered. He looked away, eyelights burning.

“I can tell you don’t really feel that way. Haven’t you ever tried telling him how you really felt?” Blue asked gently, pale cyan eyelights glowing slightly.

Boss didn’t answer. He’d look weak if he did respond in the way Blue wanted. “I should get going. I just wanted to stop by to make sure you hadn’t run away.” He muttered, heading toward the door.

“Nuh-uh! I need to do something!” Blue hopped up from his place on the couch and ran over to Boss, lightly grabbing his arm. “I’m gonna help you learn how to be ‘nicer’- you don’t have to always seem so mean all the time!” He said, seeming excited.

“Hmph. I have puzzles to recalibrate.” Boss muttered an excuse.

“Nonsense. I’m sure even if a human did come we would know by the time they got to Snowdin.” Blue held onto his arm, clinging like a small child would. “Come on, stay here for a bit, please?” He stared up at him with those adorable cyan eyelights, which had now turned to the shape of stars.

Boss couldn’t say no to that face.

So he didn’t look at it.

He turned back to the door, pulling his arm away from Blue, who followed after him. “fine, then I’m coming with you! I can help you recalibrate your puzzles.” He declared, staying close behind Boss as they walked outside.

“This is a bad idea, what if some monster kills you while I’m not looking?” Boss said, not really wanting a small skeleton to watch over at the moment.

“I know you’ll protect me. You are the Great and Terrible Papyrus, right?” Blue smiled a little to himself.

Boss simply replied with a huff as he started walking in the direction of the forest.

 

…

As soon as they got to the path into the forest, Boss was careful to listen for any noises. It would normally be an easy place to get ambushed here. And he didn’t feel like getting ambushed today. Luckily, the woods seemed silent. He continued on his way, hearing Blue trailing behind him calmly. They’d gone through all the puzzles, and now they were patrolling toward the ruins door.

That door always gave him the creeps. Red had told him about the creepy monster woman who lived on the other side, occasionally spouting crazy nonsense through the door even when no one was there.

He was finally feeling like today would be a good day, maybe. That was until the little Blue shit started talking and rambling about something about puzzles. Or food. Whatever, it didn’t matter, because it was annoying him either way.

“Shut it.” Boss growled quietly, flashing a look over at Blue.

Who Promptly ignored him. “-and I was going to challenge Alphys but after doing that, I lost, and she said she’d train me! And now she’s been teaching me about cooking. I think it’s going really well- in the last two months the stove only caught fire three times!” He kept going on, and on, and on…

Boss had just about enough of it. He did try, though, to keep calm. “Shut the fuck up before I punch you in the face.” He warned, and still he was ignored. That was _not_ good. Suddenly, he heard a branch cracking and an attack fly past his head, narrowly missing him. He immediately went on high alert and turned to face the attacker. He pushed Blue to stand behind him as he sent a wave of attacks at the monster who had attacked first.

Boss, for what seemed like a split second, had let his LV take over. He always did so, it wasn’t anything different from the normal. But the next thing he knew there was a pile of monster dust a few feet away and an unconscious Blue slumped against a tree, with a few new injuries and ripped clothing. Boss sighed heavily and walked over to Blue. After a few seconds, Blue seemed to start regaining consciousness.

“Wh-Wha?” The small skeleton mumbled, blinking. His eyelights were slightly dim and blurry. Boss rolled his eyelights and reached out to pick him up, only to stop suddenly when Blue flinched away. “O-Oh… Sorry…” Blue mumbled and allowed himself to be picked up.

Boss picked him up, balancing Blue on his hip like one would carry a toddler. He made no comment as he walked back toward Snowdin town. He’d pretty much finished his patrol to this stretch of the area, plus Blue was injured and would need healing if Boss wanted to return him home unscarred. He adjusted his grip on Blue a few times so he wouldn’t slip into an uncomfortable position.

Blue ended up resting his head on Boss’s shoulder, whimpering occasionally in pain. “S-Sorry for… talking… so much…” He said, voice almost silent.

“Yeah, well both you and I could have gotten killed. Your idiocy almost got you dusted. Your apology is useless to me, as I know you will likely do it again without hesitation.” Boss snapped, eyelights glowing with barely restrained fury. Blue winced at the tone, and started trembling. It was clear he was trying to be silent as tears welled in his sockets.

Boss growled again and dropped Blue on the snowy ground roughly, glaring at him. “You’re going to ruin my armor. You can walk by yourself now.” He hissed and started walking again, Blue trailing behind much slower. They somehow managed to reach the house without drawing too much attention, and as soon as they were inside, Boss grabbed Blue by the shirt collar and scarf.

The taller skeleton dragged Blue toward a separate door, one that led to the shed. Blue squeaked and struggled once he realized was going on, trying to pull away, digging his heels into the floor. The struggle was futile as Boss opened the door and dragged Blue to the shed, shoving him inside. The door was slammed shut and Blue pounded his fists helplessly against the wood.

“You will learn the consequences of this world sooner or later. You should be lucky this is all I’m doing!” Boss shouted coldly and turned to head to his bedroom.


End file.
